Dakota Gilbert/Adirondack Thunder
The Adirondack Thunder and Reading Royals met for the first game of a home-and-home with the Reading Royals in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,460. In the opening frame, the Thunder got a handful of odd-man chances early, most of which missed the net. Adirondack finally got on the board as Matt Salhany got a tip-in from in front of the net to open up the scoring at the 15:14 mark. Jeremy Brodeur made 14 saves in the opening frame as the Thunder took a 1-0 lead to the locker room.
“I think individually the game has been there. I knew it would be an adjustment coming back to North American hockey but it’s just have a process mindset and not worry on the results and just do the right things and know the producation will come”
Salhany on his two goal night
Second Period
In the second, the Thunder would get rewarded after killing off the first two penalties of the game as they would be gifted a five-on-three PP at the 6:53 mark of the middle frame. Justin Taylor would put home a rebound and beat Keith Petruzzeli to give the Thunder a 2-0 lead on yet another delayed penalty for Reading. Adirondack would have another 5 on 3 for 1:48 after Taylor’s goal. It would be all Thunder in the second as they outshot the Royals 18-5. However, the five-on-three gave Reading enough momentum to open up the scoring with less the 20 seconds as Jeremy Michel fed Jake Willets for his first of the season.
Third Period
Late goals tend to shift the momentum for the next period, and it would for the Royals. Less than three minutes into the third, Robbie Stucker unloaded a shot from the point that beat Brodeur and tied the game at two. Adirondack responded less than five minutes later as Justin Taylor netted his second of the game to give the Thunder a 3-2 lead. Reading would get their third PP, and as they say, “Third Time’s The Charm,” as Carson Golden found Ben Meehan in front, tying the game 1:11 after Taylor’s second of the night. It took another late PK, but the Thunder would head to their fourth OT in nine games.
You’re up 2-0 at home and there’s 5,000 people in the building and you should be full of energy. We kinda got away from it and playing simple hockey. You can’t reinvent the game and get fancy, and we got away from that”
Head Coach Sylvain Cloutheir on Adirondack giving away their 2-0 lead at home
It would take the Thunder 14 seconds to get the extra point as Jeremy Hanzel fed Salhany for his second of the night. That goal would be the fastest OT in Thunder history. The previous record was held by Ryan Loimberg, who scored 17 seconds in on March 18th, 2016. Salhany has three goals in his last three games.
What’s Next For Adirondack
The Thunder will head to Reading for a game tomorrow night to wrap up the home-and-home series. Adirondack will wrap up its three-game road trip next weekend with two games against the Indy Fuel. It will be the only time the Thunder play an out-of-conference team on the road.
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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 ’
