GLENS FALLS– The Adirondack Thunder split a weekend set with the Toledo Walleye as they fell 4-2 on Saturday evening at Cool Insuring Arena.
The hosts applied the pressure early and were rewarded with the first goal of the evening 3:54 into the game. For the second consecutive night, Brian Ward found the back of the net as he collected a rebound and beat Walleye goaltender Pat Nagle through the five hole. Defensemen Desmond Bergin and Stephen Johnson collected the assists on the play, the first point of Johnson’s professional career.
Just over two minutes later, 11 seconds into a penalty kill, Toledo’s Kevin Tansey fired a wrist shot that beat Adirondack netminder Nick Riopel to tie the game at one. With the Walleye on the man advantage, defenseman Ryan Obuchowski fed a pass across the blueline to Tansey, who walked to the top of the right-hand circle and fired home for the goal. Obuchowski and Austen Brassard collected the assists on the play, the second of the season for Brassard.
After nearly 18 minutes of scoreless hockey in the second period, Toledo struck twice to take a 3-1 lead into the intermission. First, with 2:03 to play in the middle stanza, defenseman Parker Reno converted on a 2-on-2 rush to give Toledo its first lead of the weekend. Zach Nastasiuk and Shane Berschbach collected the assists on the play. With just seven seconds remaining in the second period, the Walleye scored again as Tyler Barnes slammed home a pass from Mike Borkowki for his first goal of the season.
Adirondack struck back just 91 seconds into the third period as Thunder forward Eric Neiley cut the Toledo lead in half with his fourth goal of the season. Forward Pierre-Luc Mercier’s pass took a deflection and found its way to Neiley, who corralled the puck onto his stick and put a backhand shot on net. Nagle made the original save but the puck bounced off of Obuchowski’s skate and into the net for the goal. Mercier and James Henry collected the assists on the play to extend Mercier’s point streak to six.
Despite a 9-4 shots on goal advantage in the third period, the Thunder could not find and equalizer and Toledo iced the game with an empty-net goal with 35 seconds to play, courtesy of Connor Crisp.
The Thunder are conclude their three-in-three set tomorrow afternoon as they visit the Reading Royals for a 4:00 p.m. puck drop. Tomorrow’s game begins a stretch of 12 consecutive road games before the Thunder finally return home on Saturday, November 25 at 7:00 p.m.
