The Adirondack Thunder have officially passed the Trois-Rivieres Lions in the standing and now have sole possession of fifth place in the North Divison after taking two out of three from the Lions during the weekend series. Everything was clicking for the Thunder this weekend except for the PP. Still, they were getting chances but just not finding the back of the net as the team went 1/14 during the three-game weekend, but that didn’t seem to hurt the Thunder. The team doesn’t seem to be too worried about it, “They definitely have a pretty good PK; they were pretty aggressive, and I think we figured it out in the second half of the first game, and the second game, we had chances couldn’t get any of those to go so it was one to get one at the end of Sunday’s game” said defencemen, Jeff Taylor. Let’s dive deeper into how the Thunder moved themselves up in the standings this weekend.
Thunder Lack Of Effort Shows in Loss to Trois-Rivieres
GLENS FALLS, NY-The Adirondack Thunder had a night to forget on Friday as they came into the night tied with Trois-Rivieres for fifth in the North Divison standings. Trois-Rivieres got off to a quick start as Brett Stapley got a nice pass from Nicolas Guay and buried it home to give the Lions an early 1-0 lead. Adirondack had a golden chance on a 5 on 3 for 1:55 but couldn’t seem to get anything going and were trying to make the perfect pass. Adirondack finished the night 0-6 with the man advantage against the 26th-ranked penalty-killing team in the league. Ivan Chukarov and former Thunder James Phelan would get into a scrum at the end of the first and would each go off for roughing, creating extra ice to start the second as the teams would play four aside. The Lions would take advantage of the open ice as Cedric Montminy fed a wide-open Alex Breton in the slot as he found the back of the net just 22 seconds into the second period.
The Thunder had absolutely nothing going for them after 40 minutes of play and just seemed out of it despite only being down two, “Coming out of the second, we needed something, a spark,” said Yanick Turcotte. Adirondack found that spark from “the only guy who was on the only bus,” according to Pete MacArthur, as Turcotte had a great shift that led to his second goal of the season to give the Thunder a lifeline. However, it wouldn’t last. Cedric Montiminy would crash the net to make it a 3-1 game, and then Nicolas Guay would add a PP goal to make it 4-1. Xavier Parent scored a pointless goal in the final seconds as the Thunder lost 4-2. Jake Theut made 15 saves in the loss as the Thunder held the Lions to only 19 shots which is the least a team has gotten against Adirondack this season, but that didn’t seem to help in any way, and when asked if it was a positive head coach Pete MacArthur said, “No, zero, play harder, have pride, it’s pro hockey it’s not easy, won’t last long if you don’t play harder,” and when asked about what needs to change for tomorrow MacArthur said, “Play harder, go watch the game right now, have some pride in your game and be better tomorrow.”
Adirondack Pounces On Lions In Huge Breakout Game
GLENS FALLS, NY- Well, the Adirondack Thunder came out ready to play tonight as at the 11:48 mark of the opening period Colin Long fed Brandon Shultz, who found the back of the net to open up the scoring for the Thunder. Schultz would have two goals in the opening period. Still, before he could find the net for the second time in the period, Jarrod Gourley and D-Jay Jerome would drop the gloves. Gourley would take down Jerome, “Gourley played like an animal out there hitting everything and had a huge fight that got us going,” said Mike Bergin, who was filling in for Head Coach Pete MacArthur, who had tested positive for Covid earlier in the day. Schultz would find the net again just 3:36 after the Gourley fight as he found a juicy rebound for his second goal of the game. as his last three goals have come against the Lions, “It’s nice to start off the first period with a couple of goals, even if you just get one or get an assist or make a nice play it just builds confidence for the rest of the game and gets the boys fired up” said Schultz, he went on to say, “I guess I just like playing Trois-Rivieres, they play a certain style it’s fast and skilled and that’s the game I like to play.” Trois-Rivieres would end up getting one back at the 16:24 mark of the period as Nicolas Guay would tip in a shot in front that came from the point, and despite being down one, the Lions would outshoot the Thunder 13-11 in the opening frame, which didn’t carry over into the second period.
It wouldn’t take long for the Lions to tie up the game as Guay would fire a slapper past Theut and in just 1:27 into the middle frame, then D-Jay Jerome scored a PP goal to give the Lions a 3-2 lead on three unanswered goals. Adirondack took control of the game after the Jerome goal as Travis Broughman would feed a wide-open Grant Jozefek at the 11:00 mark, and Jozefek would make no mistake with a wide-open side of the net and knotted the game up at three, and then it would be Broughman who had a great individual effort coming down the wing and finding room five-hole on Marotte to give the Thunder a 4-3 lead, as once again the Broughman lined was firing on all cylinders. Adirondack racked up a season-high 23 shots in the middle frame to help them head to the third with the lead. One that they would keep as Brady Fleurent would score the empty-netter on the Thunder’s 50th shot on goal for the night, which was also a season-high for Adirondack as Mike Bergin got his first win as an ECHL Head Coach, “I was the most losingest coach at 0-2, and I jumped up the ranks with the win, It was nice, it’s awesome when you see a whole team come together as a unit” said Bergin. “I didn’t even realize that I probably haven’t had that many shots since I was in my early 20s,” said Colin Long, who led the Thunder with seven shots on goal, and Wayne Letourneau was the only Thunder skater not to record a shot on goal. Jake Theut made 28 saves for his 10th win of the season.
Parent’s Hat-Trick Leads Thunder To First Sunday Win of the Season
GLENS FALLS, NY- The Adirondack Thunder won their first Sunday game of the season as they defeated the Lions this past weekend by a score of 7-3. First periods have been an issue for the problem all season, but tonight, they jumped out to an early lead as Xavier Parent opened the scoring for the Thunder just 1:20 into the opening frame and extended his point streak to six games and less than four minutes later fed an open Ryan Da Silva to give Adirondack a 2-0 lead and got the crowd going, and their solid play would continue for the rest of the period outshooting the Lions 13-6. One thing the Thunder have struggled with is keeping two-goal leads. On Sunday, they would blow another one as Trois-Rivieres took advantage of special teams as Colin Bilek picked up a short-handed goal at the 6:06 mark of the middle frame to get the Lions on the board, and he added a PP goal to tie the game at the 12:12 mark of the middle frame. The Parent-Broughman-Jozefek line has been huge for the Thunder, and as they did in the first, they would get the Thunder back in the lead as Brady Fleurent fed Broughman, who got a break-away and went backhand-forehand to score with 2:00 remaining in the period, “I think we all just communicate really well, we all have good vision, we’re all simple players, and when you have three guys that gel together like that it’s really fun to play, it’s kinda funny if you just play simple good things come” said Grant Jozefek about his line.
Heading into the third, the Thunder were up only one in a crucial game, and they came out flying as Patrick Grasso scored from the circle. Then Xavier Parent took advantage of a misplayed puck from Joe Vrbetic. Just like that, Adirondack had a three-goal cushion just 43 seconds into the third period, but that was only the start of a third period that saw a total of four goals from the Thunder. Xavier Parent would finish off the hat trick. He deflected a shot from Jeff Taylor past Francis Marotte, as Parent had seven points on the weekend, five of those came as goals, “I just changed my stick after the second period, so I told Manner (Equipment Manager Alex Mann) I changed my stick after the second period, so that’s funny, I think all weekend we played really good as a team, and we knew it was a big weekend coming into it” said Parent. The Lions would respond as Colin Bilek would match Parent and get a hat trick of his own. Adirondack had struggled on the PP but finally broke through as Shane Harper found the back of the net on the 16th PP of the weekend as 11 different skaters had at least one point in Sunday’s game, and five had a multi-point game, including Ryan Smith who extended his point streak to six games. Isaac Poulter made 24 saves for his fourth win of the season, and Mike Bergin got his second straight win as the acting Head Coach.
Adirondack has a home and home next weekend against Reading, one of two teams they have yet to solve in the North Divison, “Ya, I think we just go back to our most recent game and our video of showing them the video of what happens when we play the right way, a lot of the games against Reading we’re there for about 40 minutes and then shutoff for about 20 and that’s when they capitalize, and that’s what we gotta get out of our game and play a consistent 60-minute game, and that’s a huge key for Reading” said Bergin.
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