Thunder tie series with 3-2, Game 2 OT win
It didn’t matter what altitude the Thunder’s plane reached during their trip home from Florida early Sunday.
Everyone on board was flying sky high after pulling out a dramatic 3-2 overtime victory in Game 2 of their best-ofseven Eastern Conference Finals against the Everblades the night before.
Terrence Wallin’s goal at 16:50 of the extra session knotted the series, 1-1, with Game 3 scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, the first of three straight in Glens Falls.
“I’m pumped,” Wallin said. “That place is going to be rockin’. We love playing at home. We love playing in front of our fans. We can’t wait to get back there. We’re pumped to come back to Glens Falls.”
The Thunder lost Game 1, 4-3, on Friday.
Florida outshot Adirondack, 54-28, in Game 2 on Saturday, but netminder Drew Fielding recorded a sterling 52-save performance to earn the win.
“He played absolutely incredible tonight,” Wallin said. “He’s the reason we won. I love Drew. He’s an easy guy to play for. It’s easy to play for guys when you’re good friends with them. I’m love all of these guys. Playing in front of Drew, you want to block shots, you want to help him out.”
Adirondack struck first less than four minutes into Saturday’s contest when Kenton Miller found the net for Adirondack, his second goal of the postseason. Off a 3-on-2 rush, forward Austin Orszulak fed Miller through the middle of the ice and Miller moved through the slot and fired past Florida netminder Martin Ouelette for the game’s first score.
Everblade Joe Cox put Florida ahead, 2-1, with a pair of goals -the first at 16:12 of the first period, which knotted the score, and another with 1:57 left in the second period.
But the Thunder tied the game, 2-2, midway through the third period when rookie Ryan Schmelzer scored his team-leading eighth goal of the postseason. Schmelzer and forward Troy Bourke executed a give-and-go play in the neutral zone to create a breakaway for Schmelzer, which he converted on the forehand for the goal.
Schmelzer’s tally sets the single-playoff high in goals in Thunder franchise history, while Bourke collected his second point in as many games with the lone helper on the play.
Wallin’s game-winning goal dealt Florida its first loss of the postseason, as the ‘Blades swept their opponents in Rounds 1 and 2.
It started with a faceoff in Adirondack’s defensive zone.
After taking an outlet feed from defenseman Dylan Olsen, Wallin streaked down the left wing, moved in on Florida netminder Martin Ouelette and snapped a shot over the glove hand for his first career overtime goal in Kelly Cup playoff action.
“It feels awesome,” Wallin said. “Everybody worked their butts off tonight. We ran a strong-side faceoff. Olsen threw it off the glass. Their defenseman kind of poked it into me and I had my wheels going so I got down the ice and tried to find a lane to shoot. I saw that he (Oulette) was cheating to the short side so I tried to put it upstairs and it went in, thank God.”
The overtime win was Adirondack’s second of the postseason as it took three extra sessions to win Game 6 against Manchester, which clinched Adirondack’s Round 2 playoff series.
“We’ve been through it, so we know how to play in overtime a little bit,” Wallin said. “There were some parts of the game we didn’t play like we wanted to. But we grinded, we just found a way. That’s what good teams do. We don’t lose two in a row.”