Thunder home open Saturday; smash season tix sales mark

By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer

The Adirondack Thunder have their first home game on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. against the Trois-Rivieres Lions.

Team President Jeff Mead said Monday the game was “very close” to selling out, and that the Thunder had already sold about 2,400 season tickets, shattering the previous record of 1,614 season tickets sold set last year.

He said the Thunder offer the lowest priced season ticket in the ECHL, which he says the organization has always prided itself on. This year’s season ticket price increased by 50 cents per game; the walk-up ticket price will be $1 higher this year.

Last season, the Thunder set a franchise record with a regular season average attendance of 4,239. Sixteen games were sold out, also a franchise record.

On the ice, the Thunder won the North Division and finished the regular season first in the Eastern Conference. They advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals before eventual champion the Florida Everblades, eliminated them in six games.

This year is the Thunder’s 10th Anniversary season. They’ve kicked off the celebration so far by winning their first two games on the road against Norfolk.

Mead said that this summer they invested in Cool Insuring Arena’s infrastructure. They renovated all 12 bathrooms with new tile. “You’ll start to see new sinks, and eventually new partitions,” he added. And new equipment for the food and beverage operation. There’s also a new center-ice logo on the rink.

Head Coach Pete MacArthur said, “There are a lot of things that make coming to Adirondack really exciting, especially on game day.

“We’re the smallest market [in the ECHL], but you wouldn’t know that coming to a game. I think the energy and atmosphere in our rink is almost unmatched in the league, especially the way the seats are right on top of you, and with the concourse you don’t have to go outside of the bowl of the arena to go get a refreshment. So it keeps things loud.”

Mead added, “I think our fan base feels like they own the team, which is great for us. If we’re playing great, they’re right behind us. If we’re struggling, they know it and they let us hear it. But they’re so passionate and they really believe in the Adirondack Thunder.”

Mead said he’s optimistic about how the Thunder will perform on the ice.

“We expect to make the playoffs, we expect to make a playoff run,” Mead said. “That’s kind of the bar in Adirondack nowadays. We think we’re one of the better organizations in the ECHL, on and off the ice, and that’s kind of the bar that’s been set every year.”

MacArthur said, “Our expectation every year is just to come every day and make sure that the guys are enjoying the process, being competitive, and we know if we do that we’re going to have an opportunity to win games.”

“The goal is always to win a championship,” he added. “So that never changes.”

He said keys to success will be “not getting ahead of ourselves and realizing that last year was last year and this year is this year. We don’t have to win the North again, we don’t have to win the East again. We want to put ourselves in a position to get in the playoffs, and then when you get there it’s anybody’s championship.”

The roster has changed a lot.

“Every year there’s quite a bit of turnover in the ECHL, and this year was no different,” Mead said. “We certainly brought back a good amount of players, and we lost a couple players to retirement, a couple players went overseas, and we moved a couple players, which is pretty normal in the world of the ECHL.

“But we brought in quite a few players who I think are really going to help our team. It will kind of offset the losses of a Patrick Grasso or a Shane Harper.”

Harper retired after last season.

“Obviously Harper’s hard to replace; he’s such a good player,” Mead said. “But we feel like we’ve brought in some high-end guys that will help us score a lot of goals, so we’re pretty excited as to where we are with our on-ice talent right now.”

Asked about players he sees as key to the Thunder’s success this season, Coach MacArthur said, “I think Brendan Less is going to continue to open eyes on the back end. He’s one of the more underrated defensemen in the league. We’re lucky to have him.”

“I think Ryan Smith’s another guy,” he said. “He deserves the cookies that he’s going to get. This is his fourth year here now, and he gets better every year. He is the Thunder. So he’ll be an exciting guy to watch for sure.”

On the Thunder as a whole, MacArthur said, “I think we move really well, especially in the back end. We’re super smart and competitive back there. And then up front, I think we’re very smart, and we’re also skilled and fast. So we’ve got a good mix of everything.”

He said something to work on going forward is puck management.

“That’s why most guys are at this level and not at the next level,” he noted.

“They feel like you have to go over the boards and make something happen offensively every shift, but that’s not the case. You need to make sure that you play sound defensive hockey every time you get your opportunity, and then that’s where the offense will come from. So our emphasis will be on playing simple hockey and managing the puck properly.”

Mead noted the team returns goalies Tyler Brennan and Jeremy Brodeur.

“Hockey always comes down to goaltending,” he said. “If we can continue to get good goaltending like we did last year, we’ll be a tough team to beat.”

In addition to “some really skilled players that can put the puck in the net,” Mead said, “we’ve got a couple very tough players in Darian Skeoch and Shaw Boomhower. They’re two of the tougher guys in the league, and they can also play, which is very important.”

He emphasized the importance of playing well both a man up and a man down.

“I think last year, especially in the playoffs, we struggled a little bit on the powerplay,” Mead said.

“And nowadays special teams are so important in hockey. If we can be successful on the power play and short-handed, I think we’ll be very successful.”

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