Adirondack Thunder fly past Toledo 5-3

GLENS FALLS– The Adirondack Thunder snapped a two-game losing streak as they defeated the Toledo Walleye by a 5-3 final score on Friday evening at Cool Insuring Arena.

With just 59 seconds remaining in the first period, forward Shane Conacher found the back of the net in his Thunder debut to open the scoring on the evening. Conacher prevented a clearing attempt on the Toledo blue line at full stretch before he walked down the slot and buried a shot through Toledo Walleye goaltender J.P. Anderson’s five hole to give the Thunder a 1-0 advantage heading into the first intermission.

Toledo kicked off a five-goal second period 3:19 into the middle stanza on a shot by Shane Berschbach that beat Adirondack netminder Drew Fielding low on the glove side off of a counter attack down the left wing. Defenseman Ryan Obuchowski fed Berschbach with a stretch pass and the 2017 ECHL second-team All Star buried his shot for his first tally of the season. Obuchowski collected the lone assist on the play, the first of the season for the blueliner.

Adirondack would respond with a pair of goals, however, starting with a marker from Brian Ward just 17 seconds after Berschbach’s tally. Thunder captain Mike Bergin beat a pair of Walleye players down the right wing and fed a pass to Ward in front of the net where he converted for his first goal of the season. 82 seconds later, the Thunder struck again as Pierre-Luc Mercier scored his first career professional goal to put the Thunder ahead 3-1. Mercier finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play from Eric Neiley and JC Campagna to extend his scoring streak to five games.

The Thunder scored again just shy of the halfway mark of the second period as defenseman Desmond Bergin scored his second goal of the season. After a turnover deep in the Toledo zone, Conacher collected the puck behind the net and fed Bergin in front where he slotted his shot past Anderson for the goal. Adirondack concluded the period’s scoring as Terrence Wallin scored his first goal of the season with 3:26 left in the period. After save from Anderson off of a James Henry shot, Wallin swatted home the rebound at the back post of the goal, with Henry and Loney collecting the assists on the play.

Toledo would pull a pair of goals back in the third period, beginning with Simon Denis’ wrist shot from the high slot with 8:55 to go in the game. Walleye forward Alden Hirschfeld would then cash in at the 14:19 mark on a rebound from a Christian Hilbrich to cut the lead to 5-3. Despite continued pressure from the Walleye, Fielding made several saves in the third including a sprawling save in front of his own net in traffic to preserve the victory.

The Thunder are back in action against Toledo tomorrow evening with puck drop slated for 7:00 p.m.