GLENS FALLS – Sunday was what this city’s love affair with minor-league hockey looks like.
A crowd of 4,754 fans went crazy as the Adirondack Thunder clinched a playoff spot on the final day of the ECHL regular season with a 4-3 victory over the Worcester (Mass.) Railers inside Cool Insuring Arena.
For Thunder forward Shawn Weller, a 36-year-old South Glens Falls native, it was a scene that hearkened to the old days of the Adirondack Red Wings of the American Hockey League.
“I’ve seen it,” Weller said Tuesday. “I grew up here. Like I said, this community has always been attached in some sort of way to hockey. You think about Glens Falls, you think about the Red Wings, you think about hockey. I said at the beginning of the year, if you put a product on the ice that works hard and can relate to this community, it’s a hard-working community, they’re going to stand behind you.”
Adirondack vs. Newfoundland
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Cool Insuring Arena, Glens Falls
The people of Glens Falls will turn out again to watch the Thunder open the playoffs at home 7 p.m. Wednesday against the North Division champion Newfoundland Growlers in a first-round series.
The first three games of the best-of-7 series will be held at Cool Insuring Arena – Wednesday, Friday and Saturday – with the final four games scheduled for Newfoundland in an unusual 3-4 format that reduces travel.
Under first-year head coach Pete MacArthur of Clifton Park, the Thunder finished fourth in the North Division with 75 points, 23 behind Newfoundland. But the Growlers only had a 6-5 edge over Adirondack in 11 regular-season meetings.
“I think we match up well,” Thunder forward Shane Harper said. “Obviously, first place in the division, they’re a good team. They’re fast, they’re quick, they’re a more skilled team….
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