Thunder fall in OT shoot-out
GLENS FALLS, N.Y. » Seven of the Thunder’s final 18 games are against first-place Manchester, beginning Friday on the road in New Hampshire.
Adirondack picked up one point and closed to within five of the Monarchs after dropping a 4-3 overtime shootout loss to the Worcester Railers on Wednesday.
The Thunder started out on fire, faltered in the second frame and allowed a pair of third-period goals before coming back to tie the contest, which sent it into overtime. But the Railers outscored Adirondack 2-1 in the shootout to earn the victory.
“We just couldn’t put it home in the shootout,” said defenseman Nolan Kaiser, a newcomer who arrived late Wednesday morning after getting called up from Huntsville of the Southern Professional Hockey League. His day started at 3:45 a.m. when he got up, left Alabama for Atlanta, where he arrived at 5:30 a.m., flew to Albany, got picked up and came straight to the rink.
Kaiser made an immediate impact by blasting home a long slapshot 3:14 into the contest, which appeared to get Adirondack off and running.
“I honestly thought the shot got tipped,” he said. “I was just trying to get it through from the point. They said it was me so I’ll take it.”
But it turned out to be the Thunder’s only goal of the opening frame, despite outshooting the Railers, 164.
Momentum did a 180-degree turnabout in Worcester’s favor for most of the second period. Yanick Turcotte’s goal tied the score at 1, but the Thunder regained the lead with 1:31 left in the stanza on Andrew Radjenovic’s sixth marker of the season. He somehow scored in the midst of a crowd around the Worcester crease.
“The puck just kind of stayed there, so we were whacking away at it and it happened to go in,” he said.
Friday’s showdown in Manchester opens a three-game weekend that continues back home in Glens
Falls with contests Saturday and Sunday against Reading and Wheeling, respectively. The secondplace Thunder hold a twopoint advantage over those ECHL North Division rivals, which are tied for third place.
The lead would be a little bigger if Adirondack had finished stronger against Worcester on Wednesday.
“We just got away from our structure,” Radjenovic said. “I don’t know if we took our foot off the gas pedal or what. That was a huge one point for us to lose. We definitely wanted two. We’ve got to play a full 60 minutes.
The Railers struck twice 72 seconds apart early in the third period to grab a 3-2 lead before defenseman Matthew Spencer tied things up at 9:04, with a long power-play slapshot.
Tomas Sholl made several key saves to keep Worcester off the board during the five-minute overtime skate, in which neither team scored, leading to the shootout. Terrence Wallin got the Thunder’s only goal, but Railer Tommy Kelley decided the outcome by firing a shot into the top left corner of Adirondack’s net.
Coach Brad Tapper wasn’t happy with his team’s inconsistent play.
“I thought the first period we looked like the Red Army,” he said. “We came out really strong. Then we had a power play to start the second period and I thought the momentum shifted right there with a couple really bad plays with the puck. We were swimming the rest of the second period. We were very, very fortunate to get that second goal.”
“We won the special teams game,” Tapper said. “Our penalty kill was three-for-three. Our power play was one-for-two. So it was nice to get a power play goal to help the team get a point, which is huge. It would have been nice to get a shootout win there, to get the extra point.”
“We were only good for about 25, maybe 30-35 minutes,” he said. “We’ve got to put 60 together here soon.”