Thunder desperate for Game Three win

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. » It’s all on the line for the Thunder in Game 3 of their ECHL first-round playoff series against the Manchester Monarchs on Tuesday.

Despite winning home-ice advantage by capturing the North Division title, Adirondack was forced to open the seven-game series in New Hampshire because of a scheduling conflict at the Manchester arena.

So instead of having raucous, Friday and Saturday night hometown crowds behind them, the Thunder started out in a hostile building and couldn’t gain serious momentum in Games 1 or 2, which they lost by scores of 3-1 and 4-2, respectively.

The Monarchs also caught Adirondack off guard by coming out hard with a tough, physically punishing approach that sparked multiple fights and took the Thunder off their game plan.

Also, to date, the story for Adirondack has been one of subtraction by addition.

The Thunder came into the playoffs as the ECHL’s hottest team, having reeled off 10 wins in their last 11 games, thanks in

large part to contributions from several young players whose college careers ended last month.

However, forward Greg Wolfe was added to the postseason roster after spending the previous few weeks with Albany in the AHL. The move made perfect sense as Wolfe was one of the Thunder’s most productive players, with 36 points (14 goals, 22 assists) in 53 games during his time in Glens Falls.

But lines that were on fire during the Thunder’s hot streak have suddenly lost their magic against Manchester. It’s almost as if team chemistry and camaraderie have been disrupted by the change.

Defenseman Stepan Falkovsky, whose blistering hard slapshot sparked the Thunder’s resurgence during the season’s second half, has also failed to make a major impact. Game 1 was the first action he’s seen in several weeks after being sidelined by injury.

Quite simply, Falkovsky hasn’t picked up where he left off.

He has two assists in the series, one each game, but the Thunder are desperate for some of his lethal goalscoring ability, which the Monarchs have silenced thus far. Falkovsky led the league in power play goals and was the ECHL’s top goal-scoring defenseman.

All remaining games in the series will be played in Glens Falls.

A win Tuesday night would put Adirondack right back in it.

A loss and they might as well start making summer vacation plans. The result, accomplished against a modest field of rivals, should be enough to make the son of Pioneerof the Nile one of the favorites on May 6.

Classic Empire was one of three horses who redeemed themselves in the final round of Derby preps. The others were Irish War Cry and Gormley, both of whom recovered from losses in their most recent starts by winning the Wood Memorial and Santa Anita Derby, respectively. Throw in impressive victories by Always Dreaming in the Florida Derby and Girvin in the Louisiana Derby, as well as the upset score by 31-1 Irap in the Blue Grass, and the Derby field looks more compelling than it did three weeks ago.

With the prep schedule complete, handicappers can get down to the business of translating the race results into a vision of how the Derby might actually be run. In a 20-horse field, where horses can lose all chance in their first jumps out of the gate, figuring the Derby can seem like an impossible task.

One interesting trend worth noting is that the last six Derby winners, from Animal Kingdom in 2011 through Nyquist in 2016, all finished first in their final prep races. Winning the Derby off a winning prep might not sound unusual. The fact is, though, that of the 19 previous Derbies between 1992 and 2010, only five were won by horses exiting winning races. This included an eight-year stretch between 1992 and 1999 where all Derbies were won by 3-year-olds who lost their most recent starts.

Not only were the last half-dozen Derby winners successful in their final preps; all but Animal Kingdom were also working on multi-race winning streaks when they entered the starting gate at Churchill Downs. Nyquist had won seven in a row; American Pharoah, California Chrome and Orb had won four straight, and Animal Kingdom had won two.

If the 2018 Kentucky Derby were run tomorrow, only two starters would come in having won consecutive races, Girvin and Always Dreaming. Both horses have been victorious in their last two starts.

Stellar Wind, Lady Eli return

Stellar Wind and Lady Eli, two of the most successful distaffers of the past several years, made their 2017 debuts over the weekend. The results were mixed.

Stellar Wind was in the easier spot, facing just five opponents Friday in the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park. The 5-yearold Curlin mare wore down Terra Promessa, another daughter of Curlin, to triumph by a length and a quarter. It was the fourth Grade 1 win of Stellar Wind’s career. Next up: the Beholder Mile (G1) June 3 at Santa Anita.

In the Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1) Saturday at Keeneland, odds-on Lady Eli was outfinished by Dickinson (6-1), losing by a head. It was another heartbreaking result for the three-time Grade 1 winner, whose three career losses have totaled less than a length. Fellow Grade 1 winners Catch a Glimpse and Time and Motion were among the beaten horses. Jeff Scott writes about horse racing Tuesday in The Saratogian. He may be reached at utahpine1@aol. com.