Thunder skate past ‘Blades in series finale

ESTERO, Fla. — James Henry tabbed three points and Alex Sakellaropoulos turned in a 26-save performance to lead the Adirondack Thunder to a 4-1 win over the Florida Everblades on Saturday night at Hertz Arena.

BOX SCORE

Kyle Platzer tabbed his 20th goal of the season, but Florida (33-11-5-0, 71 pts.) couldn’t climb out of a 2-0 deficit after the first period as Adirondack (27-17-3-2, 59 pts.) managed to earn four of a possible six points in the series.

The Thunder struck twice in the first period to open up a multi-goal lead on the ‘Blades for the second straight night. Henry jammed home a rebound during Adirondack’s first power play of the game at the 9:03 mark of the first period to start the scoring. Then, with just 48 seconds left in the first, Brian Ward snuck a shot past Florida goaltender Jeremy Helvig from the high slot to push the Thunder’s lead to two.

Florida managed to whittle the deficit to one on Platzer’s tally with six minutes, six seconds remaining in the second period. On a zone rush, Platzer ripped a shot past Sakellaropoulos from the left circle. Joe Cox and Matt Finn picked up assists on the play.

Sakellaropoulos locked down the ‘Blades from there, and Adirondack scored twice in the third period to send Florida to a second consecutive loss for just the second time this season. Henry deflected Dylan Walchuk’s point shot to increase the Thunder’s lead to 3-1 at the 9:15 mark of the third. Walchuk then added an empty-net score with 2:06 remaining in regulation for the final tally of the night.

Helvig stopped 26 of the 29 shots he faced as his 13-game personal win streak came to an end. That win streak matched the third-longest in ECHL history.

Florida will aim to get back on the winning track when it hosts the Orlando Solar Bears on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

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