Thunder

The Wichita Thunder lost 5-2 to the Missouri Mavericks at the INTRUST Bank Arena on Sunday evening. Wichita grabbed a 1-0 lead just 66 seconds into the game.  Paul Kelly carried the puck from end-to-end, picking up steam as he crossed center ice.  Kelly eventually worked through the right faceoff circle and beat Charlie Effinger with a backhand shot inside the left post.  Missouri tied the game at 13:02 on a tough-angle shot by Blake Forsyth.  Forsyth threw the puck at the net from the left corner, threading it behind Ian Keserich.

Wichita (17-8-1) was unable to sustain a 2-0 lead and the Tulsa Oilers (15-9-2) scored four third-period goals en route to a 5-2 win on Sunday night at the BOK Center. Tulsa scored the final five of the contest and won for the second consecutive year on Christmas. Despite the loss, Wichita remains two points back of Allen for first place in the Berry Conference. Alex Bourret (12) continued on his red-hot pace as he put Wichita up 1-0 at 1:32 of the first period. Kevin Seibel stole the puck in his own end, found Bourret up on a two-on-one and fired a laser from the right circle over the glove of Tulsa netminder Ian Keserich to extend his point scoring streak to eight games.

Kevin Young's goal early in overtime completed the Thunder's come-from-behind bid on Sunday afternoon, beating the Missouri Mavericks 4-3 at INTRUST Bank Arena. Neil Trimm, Chad Painchaud and Young led the way for the Thunder as each had two points for the Thunder. It was the second-straight comeback win for Wichita on the weekend as the Thunder came back on Saturday night and won at Missouri by the final of 6-4. The Thunder lead the season-series 3-0 and play the Mavericks seven more times this season.

Hitting the road for the seventh time in eight games, Wichita (22-14-3) got back on track with a 3-2 victory over Tulsa (11-25-3) Saturday night at the BOK Center. Matt Summers scored his sixth game-winning-goal of the season and helped the Thunder snap a three-game losing skid. Wichita moves back into second place with the victory and leads the season-series 4-2-0. Wichita broke a trend that has taken place over the last three games, all of which have resulted in losses and that was getting the first goal of the game.

Wichita (21-11-3) had been looking for something to build off of after starting out its six-game road trip losing two-out-of-three games last week. Behind solid goaltending from Torrie Jung and a two-goal night from Ian Lowe, the Thunder won a tight game in Rapid City (15-15-5) by the final of 3-1 at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center on Tuesday night. Wichita improves to 3-1-0 against the Rush this season and is 2-0-0 on the road. The two teams will have two days off before seeing each other in back-to-back contests on Friday and Saturday.

The Wichita Thunder defeated Rio Grande Valley 6-2 on Saturday night at Intrust Bank Arena to win the opening round of the CHL playoffs and advance to the conference finals.  This is the first playoff series win for Wichita since the 2004-05 season. It was a physical matchup early in this game as there were 11 total penalties called in the first period alone.  Wichita trailed 1-0 early when captain Daniel Tetrault connected on a slap-shot to tied the game at 1.  That was the first power-play goal scored by Wichita in the playoffs making them just 1-17 on power plays in the post-season.

The Wichita Thunder dropped their third straight game to Tulsa Saturday night, falling to the Oilers 4-1 at Intrust Bank Arena. Thomas Beauregard was the lone goal-scorer for the Thunder on Saturday night.  Goalie Ryan McDonald recorded 22 saves in the game. The Thunder are now 8-4 and are no longer leaders in their conference.  Wichita's next game is next Wednesday the 22nd against Missouri at Intrust Bank Arena.

Wichita basketball fans have special reason to watch some games a state south of us.   The Oklahoma City Thunder advances to the NBA finals for the first time ever. The Thunder beat San Antonio for the western conference championship, 4 games to 2. Wichita fans will get a close look at the Thunder team, as the Intrust Bank Arena hosts an exhibition game in October. Arena manager A.J. Boleski says, "Any time a team advances in the playoffs especially when you're talking about NBA finals the buzz is just going to elevate we've definitely seen that as far as our upcoming exhibition game, the excitement of buying tickets.

Wichita scored five unanswered goals in the third period to drop Missouri, 5-4 to takes sole possession of the top spot in the Central Hockey League. Five different scorers lit the lamp for the Thunder. Brett Hemingway, Aelx Bourret, Aaron Davis, Jarred Mohr and Andrew Martens all knotted goals for the good guys. Mohr and Martens scored in the third, putting the game away. Wichita heads south to Tulsa, Sunday and then back on the 18th.