ST. JOHN’S, NL – Adirondack Thunder captain James Henry skated
in his 300th game with the team as they kicked off their trip to “The
Rock” with a 4-3 loss to the Newfoundland Growlers on Wednesday night at
Mile One Centre. Colby Sissons, Ara Nazarian all scored in the defeat while
Evan Cormier made 34 saves.
Henry is the Thunder’s all-time leader in points (230) and assists (161) while
in second for most goals at 69. The Winnipeg, MB native has been a member of
the team for all of its five seasons and has been captain for its past
two.
The Thunder found themselves handcuffed in the first period by taking three
penalties in a span of 5:52. On the third penalty, the Growlers finally cashed
in after a rebound came right to Dylan Vander Esch who potted the puck over the
shoulder of Evan Cormier for his seventh of the season at 16:03.
Newfoundland strung together two more goals 3:39 apart to open the second
period. Miles Gendron dragged the puck to the front of the net on the backhand
to make it 2-0 at 3:15 and Brady Ferguson’s individual effort put Newfoundland
up 3-0 at 6:54.
Adirondack finally answered back with a pair of goals. The first belonged to
Colby Sissons (7th) who took a seeing-eye shot from the far blue line to make
it 3-1. Assists belonged to Robbie Payne and Ryan Walker at 8:29.
The second goal came from a net mouth scramble after a flurry of saves from
Growlers’ netminder Angus Redmond. The puck rolled right to Ara Nazarian (11th) to
pull the Thunder within one. Robbie Payne once again was awarded an assist and
Ludvig Larsson got the secondary helper at 15:46.
Newfoundland wasted little time in regaining their two-goal lead. Marcus Power
netted his 23rd of the season right off of a faceoff at 18:25 to make it 4-2 to
close out the second period.
Adirondack made a late push in the third period when Conor Riley made it 4-3 as
the Thunder pulled their goaltender. Charlie Curti’s blast from the blue line,
set up by Colby Sissons, was redirected by Riley for his ninth of the season at
17:33.
The Growlers held off the Thunder for the remaining 2:27 to move to 39-17-0-1
as Adirondack is now 22-25-8-5 in their 2019-20 campaign.
Adirondack finished 0-for-1 on the powerplay and killed off 4-of-5 Newfoundland
man-advantage opportunities. The Thunder were outshot 38-27.
Up Next
The Thunder continue their trip to St. John’s as they face Newfoundland
Growlers on Friday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 5:30pm!
Thunder fall short in Henry’s milestone game
