The Adirondack Thunder return home on Saturday night for their home opener against the visiting Worcester Railers. Adirondack opened the season with a particularly difficult three-game road trip.
Season Opener vs Maine Mariners
In the season opener, the Thunder would start the season off in the right direction with a 5-2 win over the Maine Mariners. It wouldn’t take the Thunder long to get on the board as Ara Nazarian would open the scoring 47 seconds into the first period. Adirondack would continue to hold the momentum through the first two periods as Shane Conacher and Felix Girard would both pick up goals with the man-advantage.
Maine, however, would get on the board in the third which as Taylor Cammarata would score on the power play which would spark a fight after the goal was scored between Robbie Payne and Morgan- Adams Moisan. Cammarata would end up picking up another goal less than two minutes later, but that’s as close as Maine would get as Adirondack would go on to win 5-2.
Goals:
First period
ADK: 47 Nazarian (1) from Curti (1), Waked (1)
Second Period:
ADK: 4:33 Conacher (1) from Payne (1), Sissions (1) (Power play)
ADK: 11:08 Girard (1) from Waked (2), Payne (2)
Third Period:
MNE: 12:18 Cammarata (1) from McNicholas (1), Racine (1)
MNE: 14:04 Cammarata (2) from Wallin (1), Tolkinen (1)
ADK: 16:23 Girard (2) from Summers (1) and Riley (1)
ADK: 18:44 Payne (1) from Popugaev (1) and Verbeek (1)
Thunder at Railers
Playing on back-to-back nights and having to travel can be tiring and we saw this come into play on Saturday night when Adirondack traveled to Worcester. The Railers would come out hot, putting up three goals in the first period while holding Adirondack to only three shots in the opening frame. Adirondack would finally come to life late in the second period as Ryan Walker would bring the Thunder to within three. However, that goal was a little too late as the Thunder would end up dropping the game by a final of 5-1.
First Period
WOR: 4:10 Samuels-Thomas (1) from Pond (1)
WOR: 7:57 Thomas (1) from Brauer (1), Doherty (1)
WOR: 11:34 PP Almeida (1) from Pierog (1), Dudek
Second Period
WOR: :19 Hitchcock (1) from Pierog (2), and Schmalz (1)
ADK: 16:05 Walker (1) from Girard (1), Salhany (1)
Third Period
WOR: 5:22 Dudek (1) from Thomas (2), Samuels-Thomas (1)
Canadian Thanksgiving at Brampton
The final stop on the Thunder’s road trip was an afternoon game against the Brampton Beast. This was a very evenly matched game and one where both goaltenders would take center stage although seven goals were scored between the two teams. The first period was an evenly matched period with both teams getting on the board.
Brampton would own the second period putting up 19 shots, but the Thunder found a way to put one past Joey Daccord. Brampton would continue to play strong early into the third, putting two past McAdam in the first five minutes. Adirondack would tie the game at the 7:17 mark and the teams would stay scoreless until a shootout where Lindsay Sparks would have the only goal in the first round, giving Brampton the 4-3 win.
First Period
BRM: 14:15 Todd (1) from Melancon (1), Miller (1),
ADK: 18:58 Payne (2), from Summers (1)
Second Period
ADK: 17:48 Girard (3), from Verbeek (2)
Third Period
BRM: 1:06 Sparks (1) from Vallorani (1), Todd (1)
BRM: 4:17 Todd (2) from Sparks (1), Vallorani (2)
ADK: 7:17 Riley (1), from Salhany (2), Walker (1)
The Thunder have also re-signed 27-year-old forward Mike Szmatula. Szmatual led the Thunder last season with 27 goals and 21 assists, making for 48 points in a total of 60 games played.
Following Szmatula’s signing, the Adirondack Thunder announced as well that Felix Girard had been suspended and is taking his talents to play overseas. As a result of the signing, Szmatula will take over the vacant roster spot.
On Friday morning, the Adirondack Thunder announced that Canadian defensemen Colby Sissons had been re-assigned from the ECHL to the Binghamton Devils of the American Hockey League. Expectation is his spot will be filled with the return of defensemen Gabriel Verpaelst on Wednesday.