GLENS FALLS, NY – The Adirondack Thunder played host to the Reading Royals for the first time this season Saturday night.  The Thunder visited the Royals last weekend and dropped both games in regulation.  Adirondack was looking for some redemption in this contest, and they almost got it, but a quick overtime goal by Reading put an end to that, and the home team fell 3-2 on the annual Teddy Bear Toss night.

For the first time this season on home ice, the Thunder got on the board first.  Patrick Grasso made it rain bears when he rifled a shot past Royals netminder Brody Claeys 7:46 into the game.

🧸🧸🧸🧸🧸 pic.twitter.com/Nz6IuFh9JW

— Adirondack Thunder (@ECHLThunder) November 27, 2022

Exactly a minute later, Trey Bradley wristed a shot past Adirondack goaltender Francis Marotte to tie the game at 1-1.

Trey Bradley answers back for the Royals with his fourth power play goal of the season. Tied up after one at Cool Insuring Arena!

REA 1 | ADK 1 pic.twitter.com/efLZ4mZWA9

— Reading Royals (@ReadingRoyals) November 27, 2022

Neither team scored again until the latter half of the third period, when Royals defenseman Max Balinson gave his team the 2-1 lead.  Bradley skated into the offensive zone with Balinson and passed the puck to him in front of Marotte, who was unable to make the stop on Balinson’s shot.

In another late-game comeback, Ryan DaSilva threw the puck to Grasso in front of the Reading net, and he blasted it home with less than three minutes remaining to force overtime.

Grasso with 2⃣ tonight to force OT pic.twitter.com/F01GyvfTrG

— Adirondack Thunder (@ECHLThunder) November 27, 2022

It didn’t take long for the Royals to end the game in the extra session.  Only seven seconds in, Mason Millman got past Xavier Parent and a sprawling Jarrod Gourley to beat Marotte five-hole for the 3-2 victory.

Three players had two-point nights: Adirondack’s Grasso (two goals), and Reading’s Bradley (one goal, one assist) and Max Newton (two assists).  Claeys made 21 saves in the win, while Marotte stopped 24 shots in the losing effort.

Thunder Head Coach Peter MacArthur on Marotte:

“Frankie was great.  He’s been a great guy since he got in the room, he works hard and he’s gotten himself ready to be in the game.  The plan was to have him in earlier, but it just wasn’t fair to him, he didn’t have enough actual practices.  He did a great job.”

MacArthur’s thoughts on what went wrong Saturday, and what the team has to do to get back on track:

“We deviated from the game plan, which is the disappointing part.  When we actually stuck to the game plan, that’s when we tied the game up.  So we’ve just got to stick to it, don’t deviate.  We have a specific way to play that works for us, we just need to stick to that.”

“We have to do a better job being more assertive in all three zones right off the get-go.”

Grasso’s thoughts on the loss:

“We didn’t play a full 60 minutes there.  It’s great to get one point out of that game, but I think we set the standard for ourselves this weekend, and I think we didn’t live up to that tonight.  So we’re going to get back on the horse and get back after it next weekend.”

Tamed Turcotte?

Adirondack’s Yannick Turcotte said Friday that he needed to stop crossing the line during games.  Not necessarily the easiest task for someone who is known more for his fighting than for his offensive capabilities.  The forward has already been suspended three times for a total of eight games in the young season (Adirondack has only played 14 games).  Up until this weekend, Turcotte had not gone two consecutive games without committing an infraction worthy of suspension.  But in his two games played following the latest suspension, he’s toned it down a lot, finding himself in the penalty box only once on the weekend, a roughing minor Friday that was evened out by Newfoundland Growlers captain James Melindy.

Next Up

The Thunder (4-6-3-1) next face the Maine Mariners (6-9-1-0) in a three-in-three next weekend, a perfect opportunity for Adirondack to leapfrog over Maine into fifth place in the North Division.  The teams will play Friday and Saturday evenings at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls before traveling to Portland for a Sunday afternoon game at Cross Insurance Arena.  Both teams are coming off tough losses on home ice (Adirondack’s 3-2 OT loss to Reading, Maine’s 9-6 loss to the Newfoundland Growlers) and will be fighting to rebound from them.