GLENS FALLS, NY – John Edwardh scored two goals to tie him for the team lead, Kelly Summers picked up a multi-point effort in his return to the lineup and the Adirondack Thunder clinched the No. 2 seed in the North Division with a 5-4 (OT) loss to the Worcester Railers on Sunday afternoon at Cool Insuring Arena.
Edwardh started the game’s scoring with a power-play tally at 10:29 of the opening period. In the diminishing seconds of the man advance, Desmond Bergin stickhandled down low before firing a pass off the boards to Summers. The defenseman slid his pass from right to left for Edwardh where he stepped in and blasted an absolute bomb by Mitch Gillam for a 1-0 Thunder lead.
Ivan Chukarov scored the next two goals of the game, both in the second period for Worcester. First, the blueliner fired a quick wrister over the shoulder of Alex Sakellaropoulos when he found himself alone in front of the cage. Five minutes later, Chukarov collected the puck off a faceoff win and put a shot on net that beat a screened Sakellaropuolos to switch the advantage to Worcester in a 2-1 game.
Edwardh recorded his second goal, a shorthanded score, to tie the game at 8:39 of the second. Charging down the right wing, the former UMass-Lowell Riverhawk snapped a quick wrister that went post-in to tie the game at two goals apiece.
Worcester’s Tommy Kelley gave the Railers the lead after 40 minutes when he flipped in his backhand shot off a rebound from Josh Holmstrom’s original attempt.
James Henry gave the game its fourth tie when he redirected a Mike Sdao shot past Gillam just over three minutes into the final regulation period. Sdao collected a bouncing puck and took a monster clapper from the blueline that Henry got with the blade of his stick to sneak in by Gillam.
The Thunder took the lead back courtesy of a Matt Salhany goal just 1:19 later. The second-year pro had easy pickings after a rebound bounced off Gillam’s pads and right to him on the door-step. Matias Cleland picked up the only assist on the goal after his booming slap-shot caused the rebound.
Ryan Hitchcock sent the game to overtime with a late tally with just 80 seconds remaining and Matty Gaudreau won it for the Railers in overtime.
With the point collected, Adirondack clinched the second seed in the North Division as they get set to take on the Manchester Monarchs in Round 1 of the Kelly Cup Playoffs, presented by SmileDirectClub. Game 1 will be Friday night at Cool Insuring Arena at 7:00 p.m. For the latest Thunder news, follow the team on all social media @ECHLThunder.
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