Hounds Make Valiant Effort in Shootout Loss

February 18, 2007 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Youngstown SteelHounds News Release


The Youngstown SteelHounds came back three times on Sunday afternoon but fell just short to the Wichita Thunder 6-5 in a shootout at the Chevrolet Centre.

Wichita took the early lead thanks to a Scott Rozendal wrap around to make it 1-0 Thunder. Mark Odut answered back for the SteelHounds with a pretty back hand to tie the game at one. The Thunder quickly took the lead back with a Ryan Lauzon power play goal to make it 2-1 after one period.

The Hounds appeared to be in trouble as another power play goal, this one by Kris Wiebe just six minutes into the period put Youngstown down 3-1. The Hounds barked back with a Jeff Alcombrack goal to make it 3-2. The Thunder ended the period up 4-2 thanks to a Ryan McLean goal with just 34 seconds left in the second period to seemingly put the game out of reach.

The Hounds did not quit as they scored two straight shorthanded goals, one by Matt Hanson and another by Kelly Sickavish to tie the game at four midway through the third period. Travis Clayton of the Thunder scored a shorthanded goal of his own with nine minutes to play to put the Thunder up 5-4. The Hounds were able to come back one more time thanks to a Brad Patterson tip in off a Kelly Sickavish shot to tie the game at five and force overtime.

The game ended up in a shootout with Joe Blaznek scoring the lone goal for Wichita to give the Thunder the 6-5 victory on Sunday afternoon. The Hounds out shot the Thunder 45-16 in the loss but gained a point and are now at 23-16-9 (55pts), only two back of Oklahoma City for the fourth seed in the CHL Northern Conference Playoffs. The Thunder are back into the saddle as they have a one point lead on Tulsa for the sixth and final playoff spot with a record of 21-21-6 (48pts).

These two teams will now travel to Kansas as the Hounds and Thunder will finish their series on Wednesday night at 8:05pm with all of the action coming live from steelhounds.com and ESPN Radio 1240-The Fan.



Central Hockey League Stories from February 18, 2007


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