Thunder set to face ECHL’s top team
GLENS FALLS, N.Y. » The Thunder’s postseason fate might very well hinge on the outcome of this week’s three-game homestand, which starts Wednesday (7 p.m.), against the ECHL’s top team.
The Florida Everblades (29-7-1-2 overall) bring a league best 16-3-1-1 road record to Glens Falls for a series that continues Friday and Saturday.
Florida leads the South Division while Adirondack (22-17-1-2) is third in the tightly-packed North Division, five points out of first place.
“We haven’t played these guys yet, so in the first game especially, the first period will probably be a lot of feeling them out almost,” said veteran Thunder defenseman Mathieu Brodeur. “The more the games go on, we’ll have a sense of their tendencies. By Saturday we’ll probably know each other by heart and start hating a few guys, which is normal.
“It’s fun though,” he said. “It brings out the competitiveness in each other. It’s fun having a challenge like that.”
The Thunder moved to within a point of first-place recently, but slipped back after dropping their last two games.
Injuries and call-ups have left Adirondack shorthanded for much of the year, sometimes forcing Coach Brad Tapper to put players in positions they aren’t used to.
“One week we have plenty of forwards and not enough defensemen,” he said. “The next week we have enough defensemen and not enough forwards.”
That was the case last Friday when Evan Neugold gave up his normal blue line duties to play wing. But he’s not a total stranger to the position, as he played forward throughout his college career, at Middlebury.
After turning pro, with Knoxville, in the Southern Professional Hockey Association, he agreed to play defense when a teammate was sidelined, in order to get more ice time. Now his career has come full circle with the Thunder.
“My goal was always to play forward at the highest level possible,” Neugold said.
Brodeur, while realizing the importance of this week’s series, is also trying to keep things in perspective.
“Right now we’re in a good position,” he said. “We’re aren’t far out of first place. But it doesn’t matter if you’re in first place in January. You want to be first in early April. There’s 30 games left. So there’s still a lot of hockey left to get into first place.”
Under the ECHL’s playoff format, teams have to win their divisional playoff championship before advancing to the conference championship and then the league finals.
If Adirondack gets past the division series, it would most likely face Florida for the Eastern Conference title.
So, if nothing else, this week’s series should prepare the Thunder for that possible future showdown.
“I’m sure they look at this series the same way we do, a best-out-of-three,” Brodeur said. “It’s a good challenge for them and it’s a good challenge for us as well. It should be a good week of hockey coming up. It’s good that we’re at home.”