FLORIDA TAKES GAME 3 TO OPEN UP 2-1 SERIES LEAD OVER THUNDER

Glens Falls, NY – The Adirondack Thunder fell 3-2 to the Florida Everblades in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Wednesday evening at Cool Insuring Arena. With the defeat, Adirondack now trails the best-of-seven series two games to one with Game 4 back in Glens Falls on Friday evening.

Forwards Terrence Wallin and Ryan Schmelzer each scored second-period goals in defeat, the third straight game with a goal for Schmelzer. Goaltender Drew Fielding turned aside 23 of the 26 shots he faced as he fell to 5-3 in the 2018 playoffs.

Florida opened the scoring with a pair of goals in the first half of the opening period. 6:05 into the game, defenseman Gus Young scored a power-play goal through traffic for his second tally of the 2018 Kelly Cup Playoffs. Less than two minutes later, the Everblades struck again as defenseman Logan Roe tallied his first goal of the postseason. After he took a feed from forward Michael Kirkpatrick, Roe’s shot found its way through traffic and past Fielding for the goal. Kirkpatrick and forward Mitchell Heard tallied the assists on the play, Kirkpatrick’s fifth point of the series.

The Thunder responded with a pair of goals early in the second period to knot the score at two. First, just 59 seconds into the middle stanza, Schmelzer dug the puck out of the corner and fed Wallin at the top of the right-hand circle, where he one-timed his shot past Florida netminder Martin Ouelette for his fifth goal of the postseason. Adirondack struck again at the 4:36 mark of the second as Schmelzer took a drop pass in the neutral zone from forward Austin Orszulak, danced around a Florida defenseman and beat Ouelette from the left wing for his ninth goal of the 2018 playoffs.

The Everblades found the game-winning goal early in the third period as forward John McCarron scored his eighth goal of the playoffs 1:42 into the final period. After Adirondack had killed 96 seconds of penalty time to open the third, Florida forward Sam Warning had a quality chance from the bottom of the right-hand circle, which was turned aside by Fielding, but the rebound fell to McCarron in front where he knocked it home for the go-ahead tally. Warning and forward Spencer Smallman collected the assists on the play, Warning’s second helper of the evening.

The Eastern Conference Finals are back in action with Game 4 on Friday evening at Cool Insuring Arena. Visit ECHLThunder.com/playoffs or call 518-480-3355 for more information on Round 3 of the 2018 Kelly Cup Playoffs.

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