Thunder Thursday: Thunder Drop 3 Big Games

The Adirondack Thunder played three games against the Brampton Beast since last Thursday and two of them were not in favour of the Thunder. The Thunder lost 5-2 on Thursday, won 7-3 on Friday and were shut-out on Saturday by a score of 3-0.

Brampton opened the scoring on Thursday at 9:54 of the 1st period and kept on scoring. By just over the midway point of the 2nd period, the Beast had a 4-0 lead. The Thunder finally got on the scoreboard at 14:13 of the 2nd when Dennis Kravchenko cut the lead to 4-1 with assists going to Peter MacArthur and Ty Loney. Then Greg Wolfe scored with just three seconds left in the 3rd to cut the Beast lead in half. Assists went to Mike Bergin and James Henry. Brampton would add one more goal in the 3rd to make the final 5-2. Calgary Flames prospect Mason McDonald allowed 4 goals on 18 shots in the loss.

It was a completely opposite game Friday as the Thunder scored three unanswered goals in the 1st period beginning with Phil Lane at 12:21 with assists from Peter MacArthur and Flames prospect Keegan Kanzig. Then Peter MacArthur made it 2-0 less than two minutes later on the power-play assisted from Dennis Kravchenko. Phil Lane scored his 2nd of the game and 10th of the season at 16:28 assisted by James Henry. Brampton cut the lead to 3-1 at 3:53 of the 2nd period before the Thunder got three more unanswered goals from Kravchenko, Lane with the hat-trick goal, and Flames prospect Brett Pollock to make it a 6-1 game. Collecting assists were Patch Alber, Peter MacArthur, Alex Wall, Mikkel Aagaard, and Mike Bergin. Brampton scored two goals in the 3rd with a Thunder goal in between to make the final score 7-3. J.P. Anderson stopped 18 of 21 shots for his 5th win of the season.

Saturday’s game was a little quieter. Brampton opened the scoring 8:36 into the 2nd period to make it a 1-0 game. Then just over half a minute into the 3rd, the Beast made it a 2-0 game and then didn’t score the third goal until 18:37 of the 3rd into an open net. Mason McDonald allowed just 2 goals on 27 shots in the loss. Montreal Canadiens prospect Zachary Fucale stopped all 26 shots he faced for the shut-out.

Ty Loney continues to lead the team in scoring with 11 goals and 15 assists for 26 points in 25 games (32nd in ECHL scoring) followed by Peter MacArthur and Mathieu Brodeur both with 19 points..

Goalie Mason McDonald is leading the team in wins with 8 (15th in the ECHL) followed by J.P. Anderson with 5 wins and Ken Appleby with 4. Appleby leads the team with a goals against average of 1.98 (6th in the ECHL) followed by Anderson with a 2.27GAA and McDonald with a 2.65 GAA. Anderson has a 0.921 save percentage (21st in the ECHL) followed by Appleby with a 0.915 save percentage and McDonald with 0.897.

The Thunder now sit 3rd in the North Division (5th in the Eastern Conference) behind the Brampton Beast, with a record of 14 wins, 6 losses, 2 overtime losses and 3 shootout losses.

The Thunder’s next action comes tonight when the they face the Elmira Jackals (Buffalo Sabres affiliate). Game time is 7:05pm EST (5:05pm MST) at First Arena in Elmira, 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