What a week it has been for all three organizations from top to bottom with the New Jersey Devils, Utica Comets and the Adirondack Thunder.
On Tuesday morning, Radio Canada journalist Martin Leclerc was made aware of alleged sexual assault took place between Oct. 1, 2016, and Jan. 1, 2017, in Drummondville, Que. Documents obtained by Leclerc state that allegedly involved three men, two hockey players and one of those players being now former Adirondack Thunder forward Noah Corson.
Corson is being charged with sexually assaulting a woman who was under the age of 16 when he played major junior hockey in Quebec, newly obtained court documents show that were obtained by Leclerc and then passed along to Rick Westhead of TSN who broke the news of Kyle Beach being sexually assaulted by former video coach Brad Aldrich in 2009 as he served as a black ace in Chiacgo during the 2010 playoffs.
Two other defendants in the case have pleaded guilty, Radio Canada reported. It’s unclear when they filed their petition and what penalties the court handed down. A Drummondville court clerk said he could not provide information about the other defendants because they were minors at the time of the alleged assault and were protected under the Juvenile Law.
Former Adirondack Phantom and Thunder player Nic Riopel declined to comment on the matter due to the case still being open. Riopel, now retired, is Corson’s agent.
After spending part of the night at a restaurant, the woman and three men moved to the alleged victim’s house, where one of the defendants was sexually assaulted while recording a video on her mobile phone. Radio Canada reported that the woman was later made aware of it. A hockey player when she attends a Voltigeur game and sees a photo of the player on the wall of the arena. Voltigeurs is one of his three QMJHL teams of former players currently under investigation for alleged sexual assault. Nicolas Daigle and Massimo Siciliano were charged with sexual assault and filming the incident. Daigle also faces two charges for sharing photos of the alleged victim. They are scheduled to return to court on February 16 to set a trial date. In August, the Quebec City Police announced that they would reopen a closed-door investigation into his alleged 2014 sexual assault involving four Gatineau Olympians.
The only comment from the Adirondack Thunder came from President Jeff Mead “We are aware of this allegation. We take the file very seriously. We found out this morning. We will have another statement soon,”
The other statement provided to the media was the following:
“We are aware of these allegations against Noah Corson and have no further comment at this time”.
Utica Comments wrote in a statement Tuesday night that the team was aware of the sexual assault allegations against Corson.
“Corson’s agent has informed the organization that Noah will be taking an indefinite leave of absence, effective immediately,” the Comets said. “The organization has no further comment at this time.”
The Thunder can’t lose sight that they are home for three games in three days, their third three in three this season it comes at no easy task. It’s Adirondack back to back three in three, from last week in Norfolk, VA to three games at home all in the north division against Newfoundland on Friday and Maine on Saturday and Sunday. Puck drop is at 7:00pm with the pregame show at 6:45pm along with every game on Hits 95.9 with Rob Lippolis.
“We have to connect passes like pro hockey players, it’s pretty simple, We can beat anybody”. MacArthur stated ahead of Friday’s game vs. Newfoundland.
Adirondack on their previous four game road swing went 1-3-0-0 against Maine and Norfolk as the squad relied heavily on forward Patrick Grasso who carried most of their load in those four games in result earning himself ECHL Player of the Week and a call-up to the American League this weekend for Utica with the Comets home on Friday against Bridgeport, Springfield on Saturday and they are off on Sunday. So there’s a chance that Grasso returns to Glens Falls on Sunday to finish off the weekend in the second matchup against Maine.
Newfoundland and Adirondack visit for the third time this season with all games so far this season all at the Cool Insuring Arena. The Thunder currently lead the season series 2-0 with the last of these two meetings before the Thanksgiving holiday, just three weeks ago.
Jake Theut won both those games with Shane Harper and Jarrod Gourly scoring the game winning goals. The Thunder currently stand 26th out of 28th in the ECHL League Standings with a 5-11-3-1 record earning them 6th in the North Division, meanwhile Eric Wellwood’s Newfoundland Growlers stand 2nd in the ECHL and have sole place of first in the North with a record of 17-5-1-0. The Thunder are searching for their first win since December 7th and their first home win since November 25th and it came against Newfoundland.
“When they were here, you saw us beat the crap out of the best team in the league, it’s pretty simple, they didn’t even want to play against us, so it’s up to them (Adirondack) if they want to play”. Referring to Adirondacks recent struggles at home and going only 1-4 on the road trip.
Adirondack claimed Estero, FL native forward Brandon Schultz off of waivers from Norfolk on Thursday to replace the end of what looks like to be Noah Corson’s season. Schultz, 26, has appeared in 59 ECHL games with Toledo, Atlanta and Norfolk.
For Newfoundland, former Thunder forward Jordan Kaplan has signed a SPC with the Growlers on Wednesday after forwards Jack Badini and Derian Plouffe were placed on Injured Reserve on Thursday. It’s unclear if they have made the trip on the road against Adirondack and Worcester.
Keith Petruzzelli is back with the Newfoundland Growlers after being in the AHL with the Marlies since the start of the season in October, mixed in with an NHL call-up, Petruzzelli will be making his Growlers debut tonight it seems. He was 8-4-0-0, 3.10GAA, .901SV%, going the other way seems to be Jake Theut.
Adirondack leads the league with the best penalty kill at 88.0%. Their power-play currently ranks at 15th in the league with six short-handed goals given up which tops the league.
Newfoundland’s Todd Skirving has scored five goals in his last four games. Xavier Parent leads the Adirondacks against Growler by his 3 points (1g-2a).Growlers are tied for the league lead with five wins when trailing after one period (5-3-1). The Thunder have scored 26 of their 53 goals in the third period.