GLENS FALLS, NY – With the best-of-seven ECHL Eastern conference semifinal series between the Sourh Carolina Stingrays and the Adirondack Thunder tied at two games each, Saturday night’s game five at the Glens Falls Civic Center was bigger than big. The winner would take control of the series while the loser would need to win two straight to move on to the next round.
It took a little longer than sixty minutes to decide the winner but in the end, it was the home team that left the ice smiling.
Gunnar Hughes scored his second playoff goal 11:21 into the first overtime period to lift the Thunder to a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the Stingrays in front of a raucous announced crowd of 3,007. Hughes’ tally spoiled a terrific comeback by South Carolina while sending the teams back south with Adirondack having the chance to end the series on enemy ice on Tuesday.
The game-winning goal came when defenseman Patch Alber pushed the puck to Hughes from the blueline. Hughes got into the face-off circle to the left of South Carolina netminder Mark Dekanich and fired a shot that found its way through some traffic and beat the goalie cleanly.
It ended a wildly frantic extra period that saw both teams have golden opportunities to end the contest in the first ninety seconds and the Stingrays get a power play that failed to light the goal light.
Saturday’s first period nearly started like the pervious game when South Carolina scored early. With Joe Devin in the penalty box, Austin Fyten stole the puck and skated in on Adirondack goalie Ken Appleby. Fyten made a move and fired a shot that got past the netminder but found the cold iron of the goal post instead of the twine in the back of the net.
Having survived what could have been a disastrous start, the Thunder began to find their groove. They began to pile up shots on Dekanich, finally breaking through at the 11:14 mark when Michael Kirkpatrick took a feed from Greg Wolfe and immediately dished the puck to Ben Johnson who buried it into the open net for his second post-season goal.
Late in the period, the Stingrays got a little sloppy with the puck and it cost them dearly. They turned the puck over to the Thunder’s Mitchell Heard who made a beeline toward a good shooting area. Instead of shooting, he simply directed the puck to the front of the net where Wolfe redirected it past Dekanich for his sixth of the post-season and a 2-0 lead after one.
Knowing full well that a third goal could be the end of the night, South Carolina played the second period hard and with some desperation. The effort paid off eleven minutes into the frame when Fyten set up Caleb Herbert who netted his team leading seventh goal of the playoffs and third in as many games in the series. The goal trimmed Adirondack’s lead to 2-1 where it stood heading into the second intermission.
The Thunder were playing much tighter on defense as the third period began, holding the Stingrays to just one recorded shot on Appleby in the first nine minutes of the frame. South Carolina continued to battle and pulled even when Marcus Perrier left the puck in the high slot for Spencer Humphries. Humphries got control of the bouncing puck and drove it past Appleby to tie the game with just over six minutes left in regulation. It was the first post-season tally for Humphries and it could not have come at a better time.
Filled with renewed energy, the Stingrays pushed hard to get the tie-breaking score but the Thunder held them off the rest of the way. Adirondack had no better luck against Dekanich and the South Carolina defense, failing to record a shot on net in the final four-plus minutes as the game headed to overtime.
The visitors tried to end the game right off the opening face-off of the sudden-death period. Bobby Shea got loose for a shot that Appleby stopped but the rebound went to Kelly Zajac. Zajac quickly fired but Appleby got across to make the save.
Seconds later, Adirondack’s Ryan Lomberg blocked a shot in his defensive end and broke away all alone. He make four stick-handling moves before putting a backhand shot on net but Dekanich flashed his left leg pad over to deny the opportunity.
After the Thunder successfully killed off a penalty to Heard, the game settled into an up-and-down battle of wills. The teams combined for twelve shots through eleven minutes of play before Hughes connected on the thirteenth and final shot that ended the game.
Both goalies played well as Appleby made 28 saves in a solid bounce back effort after being pulled in game four while Dekanich stopped 26 shots in suffering the loss. Neither team was successful on the man advantage as South Carolina went 0-for-4 and Adirondack went 0-for-5.
The teams now head to North Charleston for game six at the North Charleston Coliseum on Tuesday with the Thunder looking to close out the series while the Stingrays try to stay alive. Should South Carolina prevail, the winner-take-all game seven will be played on Wednesday.
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