THUNDER NET FIVE UNANSWERED TO TAKE DOWN BRAMPTON

Glens Falls, NY - The Adirondack Thunder rallied from a two goal deficit to take down the Brampton Beast 5-2 on Friday evening at the Glens Falls Civic Center. The Thunder swept the home-and-home series with the Beast as they got goals from five different players, backed by a strong performance between the pipes by Scott Wedgewood, who made 39 saves in the victory.

Brampton got the scoring started just eleven seconds into the game, after they won the faceoff and drove into the offensive zone, where forward Scott Howes notched his eighth goal of the season by burying his own rebound past the newly acquired Wedgewood. Defenseman Mike Vernace got credit for the assist, giving him 10 on the year, and the goal was the fastest goal Adirondack has allowed this season to open a game.

The Beast increased their lead to two with 28 seconds to go in the first period, off the stick of forward Brandon Marino. After the Beast won an offensive zone faceoff, Jeremie Blain found Marino along the right hand boards, where Marino rifled the puck under Wedgewood’s glove for his seventh goal and team leading 22nd point of the season. Blain’s assist tied him with Marino for the team lead at 15.

A little over halfway into the second period, Thunder captain Rob Bordson cut the Brampton lead in half with a power-play goal going top shelf on Beast netminder Steve Bonar. Bordson’s goal, his first at the Civic Center since he returned from Providence this week, increases his total to nine, while also extending his point streak to five games. Ryan Constant and Michael Kirkpatrick picked up assists on the play, their twelfth and seventh of the season respectively.

A few moments later while down a man on the penalty kill, Adirondack forward Ryan Lomberg chased down the puck into the Brampton defensive zone and delivered a bone crushing hit to take control of the puck at the faceoff dot, before he fired it into the back of the net to tie things up at two. Lomberg’s goal was his fifth of the season, and his first since he scored twice against the Orlando Solar Bears on October 28th.

Five minutes into the final period, the Thunder struck again on the power play to take their first lead of the night. Ryan Culkin created offense for the second straight night with a point shot, this being deflected by Mitchell Heard for his sixth goal of the season. Culkin’s assist increased his point streak to two games, while Louick Marcotte who also earned a helper on the play, which pushed his point total to 11 on the season, moving him inside the ECHL’s Top 20 among rookie scorers.

With three minutes remaining in the game, Michael Kirkpatrick iced things for the Thunder as he gained control of the puck in the neutral zone, skated into Brampton’s zone with one defender to beat, and sniped one past Bonar for the insurance goal to give Adirondack a 4-2 lead. Kirkpatrick’s multi-point night matches Thursday’s game vs. Brampton, where he also notched a goal and an assist. Rob Bordson was credited with the assist which gave him three multi-point ECHL games in a row, dating back to November 4th. Of Bordson’s 18 points, eight have come against Brampton.

Gunnar Hughes iced the game with 90 seconds left to play when he scored an empty netter coming off an assist from Dana Fraser. It was just the second goal of the season for Hughes, and Fraser picked up his third assist.