Comeback Bid Falls Short in 6-4 Loss to Rush
January 26, 2014 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Wichita Thunder News Release
Rapid City, SD - The Thunder (16-19-4) mounted a late third-period come-back, but fell short as the Rapid City Rush (27-10-0) held on for the 6-4 victory Saturday night at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. RG Flath and Matt Robinson scored a pair of goals with less than five minutes remaining, both of which were on the power play and just over two minutes apart, to get Wichita within one. For the second night in a row, Rapid City recorded an empty-netter and improved its record to 5-0-0 against the Thunder this season. The two teams will not see each other until early March when the Thunder travel on a Tuesday to the Black Hills and then close out the season-series against the Rush on the following Sunday.
The first period was a physical battle that was expected for the back half of a two-game set on the weekend. It didn't take long as Erick Lizon dropped the gloves with Ryan Palmer after a hit on Jon Booras near the right circle in the Rapid City zone and each player were assessed a fighting major. Immediately after the next whistle, Justin Sawyer and Garrett Gruenke squared off for a fantastic bout that at one point were exchanging punches. The two teams combined for four fighting majors in the first 1:09 of the game.
Wichita had the advantage with the calls in the early going, getting three-straight power plays as Jared Brown took two consecutive penalties followed by a trip on Jesse Schultz. The Rush killed off the chances and struck first as Kyle Stroh found the back of the net at 17:04. The Thunder answered with a power play goal at 19:44 from Jesse Dudas that evened things up heading into the second.
The Rush began the period with a couple of power play chances, but couldn't do much with the opportunities. At 3:59, Bobby Preece skated into the play up the right wing and scored to give Rapid City a 2-1 lead. The Rush added two more as Scott Wray beat David Brown at 9:10 while Eric Giosa tallied one at 14:18. Rapid City finished the period out-scoring the Thunder 3-0 and fired 23 shots on net.
At the beginning of the third, Matt Robinson appeared to tip in a shot from the blue line but the official immediately waved it off. The call was playing the puck with a high stick and the game remained 4-1 in favor of the Rush. Tomas Klempa got the Thunder going at 9:06 with a terrific individual effort and scored with a backhand from the right circle to close the gap to 4-2. Rapid City got one back as Giosa stripped the puck behind the Thunder net, fed it to Jared Brown at the right circle and he scored at 11:50 to get the lead to 5-2. The Rush went on to commit four-straight minor penalties and gave the Thunder a chance to get back into the game. Flath redirected a Jon Madden feed from just in front of the crease with his backhand at 15:26 that cut the lead to 5-3. At 17:56, Robinson caught a nice pass from Klempa at the right face-off dot and he buried it past Keaton Hartigan to make it 5-4. Wichita pulled David Brown with just over two minutes left. The Thunder got an offensive zone face-off after Hartigan was forced to cover a dump-in and then used its time-out to set up a play. The Rush held the fort and got an empty-netter from Winston Day Chief at 19:53 that closed the scoring at 6-4.
After winning five-straight, Wichita has lost back-to-back games. The Rush fired 23 shots against the Thunder in the second period, which is a new season-high for shots against in a period. Robinson recorded his 18th of the year and has goals in three-straight games. Klempa finished with a goal and an assist while Madden had two helpers on the night. Brown had his four-game personal winning streak stopped at four, stopping 32 of 37 shots in the losing effort. Hartigan earned his eighth win of the year, stopping 26 of 30 shots he faced.
Wichita went 3-for-11 on the power play. Rapid City was 0-for-4 with the man advantage.
Wichita closes out its busy schedule of seven games in 12 days with a Tuesday night match-up at home against the Denver Cutthroats at 7:05 p.m.
Individual game tickets are on sale now. Season tickets and mini plans are still available. Don't delay, contact the Wichita Thunder Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at (316) 264-4625. Stay up-to-date on all the news this off-season by visiting www.wichitathunder.com.
Central Hockey League Stories from January 26, 2014
- Americans Score Three Unanswered Goals, Beat St. Charles 3-1 - Allen Americans
- Early Goal Not Enough for Chill - St. Charles Chill
- Mallards Fall to Brampton 4-3 in Overtime - Quad City Mallards
- Americans Look for Sweep of the Chill this Afternoon - Allen Americans
- Comeback Bid Falls Short in 6-4 Loss to Rush - Wichita Thunder
- Mavericks Take a Seventh over Oilers - Kansas City Mavericks
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