Earlier today, the Adirondack Thunder named Connor Ingram the Concord Pools Player of the Week. In his week with the Thunder Ingram earned a 2-0-1 record with a .960 SV%.
Adirondack’s Post Star had kind words about Ingram’s games. In his first appearance, he “made 33 saves in his first game in an Adirondack uniform, leading the Thunder to a 4-1 victory over the Kalamazoo Wings on Friday night.” And in his second game for the team, “Connor Ingram went the distance in goal for the Thunder, collecting 25 saves” in the victory, and also earned the Thunder their third victory in a row.
Ingram’s last game was a shootout loss in which he picked up a point for the team and made a hefty number of saves. The Post Star lauded him: “Brampton scored a power-play goal in the first period, but that was the only goal surrendered during regulation and overtime by goalie Connor Ingram. He stopped 37 of 38 shots.”
We’ll be getting a more thorough recap of Ingram’s work tomorrow in Trace’s Thunder report.
New #ADKThunder netminder Connor Ingram is your Concord Pools Player of the Week – Ingram posted a 2-0-1 record with a .960 save percentage in three games this weekend! ~ https://t.co/YEN8d9WZJM pic.twitter.com/pWE8PIEZUz
— Adirondack Thunder (@ECHLThunder) November 13, 2017
This hard work and positive attitude was apparently exactly what the Syracuse Crunch wanted, because they have just recalled Ingram from his loan to Adirondack and sent back Nicola Riopel. In our story about Ingram and Spencer’s demotions, we speculated that it was to give them more ice time and confidence:
Spencer has not had many opportunities to crack the line up with the Crunch as a right-handed defenseman. Veteran Jamie McBain has a pretty much guaranteed spot on the right side. Ben Thomas has been the Crunch’s leading scorer from the blue line. Rookie Erik Cernak has been a very solid defenseman, and the early reports on him have been very positive. Spencer has only played in two games for the Crunch and his re-assignment to the ECHL will give him ample playing time.
Ingram has struggled in his rookie season with an .860 save percentage. Of course, that’s not much worse than the Crunch’s other goaltender, Michael Leighton, and his .867 save percentage. Ingram will get plenty of ice time with the Thunder and hopefully it will give him some confidence to return to the AHL later with more success.
That didn’t take long.
Riopel dressed for the Crunch’s sole weekend game to back up Michael Leighton in his weekend victory against the Charlotte Checkers.
Also returned is defenseman Matt Spencer, who dressed in three games for the Thunder. He registered no goals or assists, and ended his stint at a +1.
