Sarah Pietrowski/InsideTheRink
The Adirondack Thunder and Reading Royals kicked off a home-and-home series, which began in Reading. In the first period, Reading would get their chances early on, and Jeremy Brodeur would have to come up with a bunch of big saves early to keep the game scoreless. Coming into tonight, the Royals had the fifth-worst PP in the ECHL, but they would find a way to break through. Brandon Saigeon fed Connor McMenamin in front for a tap-in giving the Royals the 1-0 lead at 7:23. For McMenamin, he has goals in each of his last three games. The Reading lead lasted just 6:05 before the “Country Jersey Models” got the Thunder on the board as Justin Taylor fed Chase McLane in front, tying the game up at one. Brodeur also got credit for an assist McLane’s goal. Reading would outshoot the Adirondack Thunder 10-8 in the opening 20 minutes.
In the second, Adirondack took the lead as Dylan Wendt fed Brannon McManus, who went top shelf, giving the Thunder a 2-1 lead. Adirondack got a golden chance to double their lead as Tanner Edwards got a short-handed breakaway, but was denied by Keith Petruzzelli. Reading responded as Ben Meehan put home a rebound for his tenth of the season to tie the game. At the 16:06 mark, we’d get our first fight of the game as Ryan Wheeler and Jake Willets dropped the gloves. The Royals took the lead late in the second as Miles Gendron fired a shot that hit a body and would go up and over Brodeur to give Reading a 3-2 lead.
The period wouldn’t end quietly as Adrian Berlado dropped the gloves with Mikael Robidoux just nine seconds after the Royals goal. Reading would take a 3-2 lead to their third, despite being outshot 16-7.
Heading into the third period, the Thunder would be down a defenseman as Adrien Berlado didn’t return from his fight. That wouldn’t be the only thing hurting the Thunder, as entering Friday Night, the Thunder were 1-15-2 when trailing after 40. Adirondack would get their first PP of the game at the 7:19 mark, and despite a lot of good chances, they wouldn’t be able to find the game-tying goal. However, 15 seconds after the penalty ended, Jackson van de Leest ripped home a shot from the point, tying the game at three. Both teams would get some chances the rest of the way as Brian Carrabes had a golden opportunity at the 14:33 mark, and Jeremy Broduer would make a game-saving stop with two minutes left on Brandon Saigeon, which would be enough to send this game into OT.
In the OT frame, it would be back-and-forth action as both teams had golden opportunities to win it, but this game would head to a shootout. Zach Bannister would score in the first round for Reading, but Patrick Grasso and Kevin O’Neil would score in rounds two and three, sending the Thunder back to Glens Falls with the extra point.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source insidetherink.com ’
