GLENS FALLS, NY – October 23, 2019 – James Henry and Matt Salhany each scored within 1:32 of the third period to stretch a close game into a comfortable Adirondack lead and an eventual 5-2 Thunder win on Wednesday night at the Cool Insuring Arena. The Mariners fell to 1-3-0-1 on the young season.
Adirondack grabbed a 2-0 lead with a pair of special teams goals in the first. Casey Pierro-Zabotel had two shorthanded chances, and buried the second at 7:01 of the first, set up by former Mariner Hayden Verbeek. It was another former Maine skater Antoine Waked adding a power play goal to double the Thunder lead at 14:34, off a scramble around the Mariners net that Tom McCollum couldn’t cover.
The Mariners dominated the second period, outshooting Adirondack 11-3. They finally got on the board at 15:36, when Scott Savage spotted Jake Elmer down to the left of Thunder goaltender Michael McNiven. Elmer scored his first ECHL goal to cut the lead in half. Brandon Crawley took a penalty in the final seconds of the period, giving Adirondack the power play to start the third.
James Henry got behind the Mariners defense and scored an unconventional power play goal to make it 3-1 just :47 into the third. It was Henry’s 200th career point as a member of the Thunder – he was already the franchise leader. Salhany followed at 1:32 with a similar goal to extend the lead to 4-1. McNicholas caused a turnover and set up Ryan Dmowski for his first Mariners tally at 12:43 to bring the deficit back to two but Verbeek skated in alone on an empty net to seal the game.
McNiven made 24 saves for his first win while McCollum stopped 20 of 24 in the losing effort.
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