ELMIRA, NY – The Elmira Jackals fell in their season-opener to the Adirondack Thunder 4-1 tonight at First Arena in Elmira, NY. The victory was the first for Adirondack since joining the ECHL during the off-season.
Louick Marcotte scored the opening goal of the contest at 8:46 of the first period with just ten seconds remaining on the minor penalty to Scott Jacklin. Rob Bordson fed the puck across the ice in the Jackals’ end to David Shields, who found an open Marcotte in the slot for the tap-in marker. The Jackals out-shot the Thunder 10-6 in the opening frame, but could not solve Adirondack netminder Ken Appleby.
In the second period, the Thunder would capitalize again on the man advantage and increase their lead to 2-0. James Henry found Joe Faust at the top of the circles and the blueliner shipped a pass backdoor for Mathieu Brodeur’s first goal of the season at 13:54 of the second period. Despite putting 18 shots on net and accruing a plethora of chances, the Jackals headed to the third period trailing 2-0.
Adirondack would tack on to its lead at 4:53 of third stanza. Just as a Jackals power-play expired, Mathieu Brodeur took a shot from the point which was re-directed past C.J. Motte by Ryan Lomberg. Dana Fraser also earned an assist on Lomberg’s first of the season.
The Thunder made it 4-0 less than four minutes later as Marcotte was the beneficiary of a turnover deep in Elmira’s end for his second marker of the night. The Jackals did get on the board at 15:58 of the final frame with a beautiful tic-tac-toe play by Chris Langkow, Mike Seidel and Scott Jacklin. Langkow moved through the middle of the ice and fed Seidel on his right, who quickly played it over to Jacklin for the tap-in tally. Jacklin’s goal was his first professional marker.
C.J. Motte stopped 22 of 26 shots faced, but was saddled with the loss. Ken Appleby turned aside 29 of 30 shots to earn the win.
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