ECHL Kansas City Mavericks

Mavs Close 2018 with Wild OT Win

Published on January 1, 2019 under ECHL (ECHL)
Kansas City Mavericks News Release


INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - On Monday, the Kansas City Mavericks took on the Wichita Thunder in front of a packed crowd at Silverstein Eye Centers Arena to bring in the new year. In a tough, two-way battle between the two teams, the Mavericks would continue to impress on home ice with a 5-4 overtime victory.

Early in the first, Greg Betzold would put the Mavericks up 1-0 with his eighth of the season off assists from Riley Sweeney and Mark Cooper. Betzold would continue the scoring at the 5:40 mark with his second of the game and ninth of the season with another assist to Cooper. The festivities would settle down through the middle part of the period with the Mavericks continuing to generate scoring chances. With under six minutes to go in the period, Willie Raskob would find Mark MacMillan with a huge hit in the corner that would ignite a small ruckus. Teams would skate 4 on 4 after matching minors to MacMillan and Darian Dziurzynski. With a few seconds left in the 4 on 4, Keoni Texeira would get the Thunder on the board at 15:53 to cut the Mavericks lead to one. At the end of the first the Mavericks would head to a power play that would extend into the second period.

The Thunder would use a pressuring forecheck early in the second period to finish killing off the remaining power play time. The teams would spend much of the next six minutes playing up and down hockey before Zach Fischer would drive hard to the Thunder net. The puck was pokechecked away by the Thunder right to the stick of Mark Cooper and he would record his third point of the night to put the Mavericks up 3-1 at the seven minute mark of the period. Shortly thereafter, Joey Sides got loose on a breakaway attempt, but was mauled by former Maverick captain Tyler Elbrecht on the way to the net. Elbrecht would sit for two minutes for slashing and the Mavericks headed back to the powerplay. The Thunder penalty kill unit would, again, provide solid defense for the Thunder as the penalty time expired. At 13:29, Nate Widman would break through with a snipe after a cannon of a shot from Neal Goff rang off the post and landed on the defenseman's stick. The Mavericks would generate a few more chances at the end of the period before heading into the locker room with the score sitting at 4-1 as the clock showed all zeros.

The Thunder got an early powerplay in the third as Joey Sides went to the box for tripping. They would quickly capitalize with Ralph Cuddemi scoring from the left point to bring the score to 4-2 with plenty of time left on the clock. The Thunder headed back to the powerplay when Jordan Ernst was called for interference. During the Thunder powerplay, Pierre-Cedric Labrie of the Thunder was issued a ten-minute game misconduct for abuse of officials; which drew the ire of Labrie and Thunder coach Malcolm Cameron. The Mavericks finished the penalty kill as the clock crept towards the 13:00 mark. Later in the period, gloves were dropped at center ice between Zach Fischer and Ralph Cuddemi that would result in both men heading to the locker room early at the 14:21 mark with cross-checking and roughing minors tacked onto five-minute fighting majors. The Thunder would pull the goaltender and use their timeout late in the period. A rocket from the point off the stick of Jeremy Beaudry would cut the lead to 4-3 and another goal with just 45 seconds left by MacMillan would tie the game.

3 on 3 overtime would commence and both sides would have scoring opportunities. The Mavericks would breakthrough to secure the victory at the 3:02 mark of overtime as a backhanded shot from Rocco Carzo would find its way through the legs of Thunder goaltender Edwin Minney and into the back of the net. The Mavericks improve to 17-11-1-1 on the season as they head to Allen to play on Wednesday night before returning home this weekend.

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