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Thunder Thursday: Bumpy Couple Weeks and Roster Moves

The Calgary Flames affiliate has had a rough couple weeks and made some roster moves.

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The Adirondack Thunder (Calgary Flames ECHL affiliate) made a few roster moves on Wednesday. The Flames re-assigned defenseman Ryan Culkin to the Thunder from the Stockton Heat. Defenseman Alex Wall has signed a PTO with the Utica Comets of the AHL and forward Ty Loney has signed a PTO with the Albany Devils of the AHL.

The Thunder have also played seven games since we last checked in with them back in December so let’s get to some updates.

On December 22, 2016 the Thunder visited the Elmira Jackals at First Arena in Elmira, New York. The Thunder scored three unanswered goals by Peter MacArthur, Alexander Fedoseyev and Gunnar Hughes to jump to a 3-0. Assists went to Patch Alber, Dennis Kravchenko, Greg Wolfe and Nolan Kaiser. Then Elmira scored three unanswered goals themselves starting with just under thirty seconds left in the 1st and the third coming at the 17:45 mark of the 3rd period to tie the game 3-3 and send it to overtime. Greg Wolfe was the overtime hero scoring 4:56 into overtime to give the Thunder the 4-3 win. Assists went to Patch Alber and Mikkel Aagaard. Calgary Flames prospect Mason McDonald stopped 31 of 34 shots for his 9th win of the season.

The Thunder dropped their next game on the next night against the Reading Royals by a score of 5-2. The Thunder got goals from Flames prospect Brett Pollock with assists to Alex Wall and Greg Wolfe, and James Henry, assisted by Gunnar Hughes and Dennis Kravchenko. Mason McDonald allowed 4 goals on 38 shots in the loss.

New Year’s Eve found the Thunder on the losing end of a 5-2 score against the Royals once again. The Thunder got a goal from Ty Loney assisted by Patch Alber and Peter MacArthur and a goal from Gunnar Hughes with the lone assist going to Alexander Fedoseyev. Mason McDonald allowed 3 goals on 24 shots.

The new year didn’t treat the Thunder any better as they dropped their third straight game on January 4th to the Norfolk Admirals by a score of 4-2. Ty Loney and Mikkel Aagaard scored the goals for the Thunder with assists going to Alexander Fedoseyev, Mikkel Aagaard, Gunnar Hughes and Kevin Lough. J.P. Anderson allowed 3 goals on 40 shots for the loss.

January 6th saw the Thunder get back in the win column as they beat the Reading Royals 4-2. Goals came from Nick Bligh (assisted by Dana Fraser), Ty Loney (assisted by Alex Wall and Dennis Kravchenko), Alex Wall (assisted by Dennis Kravchenko) and Dennis Kravchenko (assisted by Roman Dyukov and Conor Riley). J.P. Anderson stopped 21 of 23 shots for the win.

The Thunder lost to the Royals the following night by a score of 4-3. Adirondack got goals from Nick Bligh (assisted by Kevin Lough and Brett Pollock), Greg Wolfe (assisted by Stepan Falkovsky and Alex Wall) and Gunnar Hughes (assisted by Conor Riley and Nick Bligh). J.P. Anderson allowed 4 goals on 29 shots for the loss.

The Thunder’s most recent game has been their best in a while, beating the Elmira Jackals 5-1. Captain Peter MacArthur scored 3 goals for the hat-trick while Ty Loney got 1 goal and 2 assists, Mikkel Aagaard got 3 assists, Roman Dyukov got 1 goal and 1 assist and Patch Alber, Brett Pollock, Nick Bligh and Conor Riley each got 1 assist. J.P. Anderson stopped 26 of 27 shots for the win.

Ty Loney continues to lead the team in scoring with 15 goals and 17 assists for 32 points in 30 games (31st in ECHL scoring) followed by Peter MacArthur with 12 goals and 12 assists for 24 points in 29 games.

Goalie Mason McDonald is leading the team in wins with 9 (16th in the ECHL) followed by J.P. Anderson with 7 wins. Ken Appleby leads the team with a goals against average of 1.98 (8th in the ECHL) followed by Anderson with a 2.36 GAA and McDonald with a 2.76 GAA. Anderson has a 0.919 save percentage (19th in the ECHL) followed by Appleby with a 0.915 save percentage and McDonald with 0.897.

The Thunder now sit 4th in the North Division (7th in the Eastern Conference), with a record of 17 wins, 10 losses, 2 overtime losses and 3 shootout losses.

The Thunder’s next action comes Friday when the they face the Manchester Monarchs (Los Angeles Kings affiliate). Game time is 7:00pm EST (5:00pm MST) at Glens Falls, New York.

Check back each and every Thursday for Thunder Thursday where we will update you on all news and scores from the Adirondack Thunder.

Check the Adirondack Thunder website for more news and information about the Calgary Flames ECHL affiliate.

by BizzleJ