ROYALS TOP THUNDER 3-1 AS POINT STREAK COMES TO HALT

READING, PA – John Edwardh scored his ninth goal late in the third period to avoid the Thunder’s first shutout loss this season, but Adirondack fell 3-1 to the Reading Royals Wednesday night at Santander Arena.

With the Thunder clawing to get on the board, Edwardh took a drop-pass from Matias Cleland at his own blue-line and carried the puck all the way to the middle slot in the offensive zone. He put a quick drag on the Royals defense and flicked his wrist-shot by Callum Booth for the Thunder’s only goal. The goal extended Edwardh’s point-streak to three games while the assist gave Cleland his eighth point in the past four games.

After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, Adam Schmidt got the Royals on the board with a power-play goal at 2:38 of the second period. Nick Luukko took the original shot from the right point and Schmidt got a piece of the shot in front of the cage before trickling by Dillon Kelley, who was making his Adirondack Thunder debut.

Frank DiChiara doubled the Reading lead with its second consecutive man-up goal of the evening. Kevin Goumas possessed the puck on the left wing before he slid a pass down to Schmidt in front of the net. Schmidt went tic-tac-toe to DiChiara who one-timed the pass for his ninth tally of the season.

Josh MacDonald made it a trio of goals in the period when he converted for his team-leading 16th score of the year. Chris McCarthy dumped a feed to Scott Dornbrook on the left side. The Miami University (OH) grad fed MacDonald with a back-door feed that he made no mistake about for a 3-0 lead.

Kelley made 26 saves in his first start for Adirondack. The 24-year-old was signed from the SPHL’s Fayetteville Marksmen earlier this week.

Booth turned aside 27 of 28 shot attempts for his seventh win.

The loss snapped the Thunder’s nine-game point streak where they had picked up 16 of a possible 18 points.

Adirondack heads north for a pair of games against the Newfoundland Growlers this weekend in St. John’s, NL. The Thunder will travel tomorrow before tussling for first place in the North Division on Friday and Saturday evenings at Mile One Centre. For the latest Thunder news, follow the team on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @ECHLThunder.

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