THUNDER COME BACK TO EARN POINT IN 4-3 SHOOTOUT LOSS

Glens Falls, NY – The Adirondack Thunder scored with 22 seconds left in regulation to force overtime but fell 4-3 in a shootout to the Worcester Railers on Friday evening at Cool Insuring Arena.

Mathieu Brodeur scored with 22 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at three and earn the Thunder a point. Conor Riley and Ty Loney also scored for Adirondack while forward Shane Conacher netted two assists. Mackenzie Blackwood turned aside 27 shots in his first appearance with the Thunder.

Adirondack opened the scoring early in the first period while shorthanded as Paul Rodrigues created a turnover in the neutral zone and Riley gathered the puck on a breakaway before he was hooked to earn a penalty shot. Riley skated in on Worcester goaltender Mitch Gillam and went forehand-to-backhand for the goal, his fourth of the season.

Worcester responded at the 12:47 mark of the first period as it capitalized on an odd-man rush to knot the score at one. Railers’ captain Ashton Rome skated down the right wing and dropped the puck to defenseman Connor Doherty in the slot, where he fired past Blackwood for his first goal of the season. Rome and forward Barry Almeida collected the assists on the play, Rome’s ninth of the season.

The Thunder came back with their second tally of the evening on special teams, this a power-play goal from Loney. Conacher, stationed at the center point, fired a shot towards Gillam that hit Loney in the chest and dropped to his stick where he tapped it in for his team-leading 17th goal of the season. Conacher and Troy Bourke collected the assists on the play as Bourke extended his scoring streak to six games.

Late in the second period, the Railers scored twice in less than a minute to take a 3-2 lead into the intermission. First, with 3:22 left in the middle stanza, Rome found forward Woody Hudson in front of the Adirondack net and the Railers’ winger buried it five hole for his 12th tally of the season. Just 58 seconds later, Worcester struck again on a tic-tac-toe passing play to take its first lead of the evening. Jeff Kubiak, Yanick Turcotte and Nick Saracino combined on the goal, which was finished off by Kubiak for his fourth tally of the season.

After the third period nearly came and went without a goal, Adirondack scored with 22 seconds left in regulation to earn a point and force overtime. With the Thunder net empty for the extra attacker, Conacher fed Brodeur inside the right-hand circle, where he one-timed his shot past Gillam for the game-tying goal. Conacher and forward James Henry collected the assists on the play, Conacher’s second of the evening.

After overtime passed with five shots on goal, including a near game-winning goal from Riley, the game progressed to a shootout. The first two rounds saw no goals from either side before Worcester forward Kellen Jones won the game in round three with the shootout’s lone goal.

The Thunder are back in action tomorrow evening as they host the Brampton Beast on Hall of Fame Night at Cool Insuring Arena. The Hall of Fame Q&A will be held at 5:00 p.m. in Heritage Hall, followed by puck drop slated for 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available for all Thunder home games by visiting ECHLThunder.com or calling 518-480-3355 x1.

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