GLENS FALLS, NY – On Wednesday night, the Adirondack Thunder took on the defensing ECHL Kelly Cup champion Fort Wayne Komets in game one of a three-game set at Cool Insuring Arena. It took longer than 60 minutes or even 67 minutes to decide it but Shane Harper’s goal in the shootout gave the host Thunder a 4-3 win.
The first period came out even as each side scored once. Fort Wayne opened the scoring during an early power play when Zach Pochiro set up Connor Corcoran for his sixth tally of the season. Adirondack responded right back a little over four minutes later when Luke Stevens, son of former NHLer Kevin Stevens, potted his first professional goal off a feed from Patrick Grasso at the 9:51 mark to even things up at 1-1.
The middle frame started off quicker than the first period did with two goals in the initial 3:33. Things started at the 2:11 mark when the Komets’ Shawn Boudrias put a shot past Thunder netminder Alex Sakellaropoulos for his tenth goal of the year. The assists on then tally went to Sacha Roy and Kellen Jones. It took the Thunder 1:22 to again pull back into a tie game when Harper bagged his ninth with help from Robbie Payne and Joe Masonius.
Fort Wayne took its third lead of the night at the 7:33 mark when Pochiro scored the Komets second man advantage tally of the game. It came after Adirondack had killed off the first of two overlapping penalties that gave Fort Wayne 30 seconds of a five-on-three power play. For Pochiro, it was his sixth goal of the 2021-22 season.
The one-goal lead for the Komets held up through the first 15 minutes of play in the final frame. Then at the tail end of a major penalty to Fort Wayne’s Zach Tolkinen, the Thunder struck for a game-tying power play goal by Jake Ryczek off of assists by Pete MacArthur and Sebastian Vidmar. It was Ryczek’s fifth score of the season and couldn’t have come at a better time.
Adirondack had an opportunity to end the game in the overtime period as Fort Wayne took three minor penalties – all three overlapping to give the Thunder more than four minutes of power play time including well over two minutes of a two-man advantage. Komets goalie Jiri Patera and his teammates held off Adirondack, sending the contest to a shootout.
In the penalty shots, Harper beat Patera in the first round. It was all the Thunder needed as Sakellaropoulos denied Will Graber, Pochiro and Boudrias to secure the victory.
Both goalies were spectacular ad Sakellaropoulos stopped 27 of the 30 Komets shots through regulation and the overtime plus the three in the shootout. Patera was even better, turning away 42 of 45 Adirondack shots through 65 minutes in game play plus one mor in the penalty shots.
The two teams will meet for game two of the set Friday night in Glens Falls.
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