Thunder Opens Road Trip with Loss at Utah
Published on April 2, 2026 under ECHL (ECHL)
Wichita Thunder News Release
Wichita Thunder battle the Utah Grizzlies
(Wichita Thunder)
W. VALLEY CITY, UT - Wichita kicked off a four-game road trip on Wednesday night, losing to Utah, 6-3, at the Maverik Center.
Jake Wahlin, Jay Dickman and Matt Crasa provided the offense for the Thunder. Roddy Ross suffered the loss, stopping 26 shots.
Dickman opened the scoring just 22 seconds into the game. He fired a pass from the right corner to the net. The puck deflected off a stick and got past Hunter Miska.
The Grizzlies answered just over a minute later as Ryan Rosborough potted his first of the season. Utah won a battle below the goal line and Rosborough was wide open across the slot.
At 18:18, Cy LeClerc gave the Grizzlies the lead for good. Wichita was denied on one end as Kyle Jeffers had a great chance from the slot. LeClerc found a loose puck, skated the other way and beat Ross for his second of the year.
Nicholas Niemo increased the lead on the power play at 5:24 of the second. He took a long outlet feed on a breakaway and beat Ross to make it 3-1.
Wahlin answered just 31 seconds later to cut it to 3-2. Jeffers stole it near the Thunder line and sent Wahlin on a breakaway. He beat Miska over the glove for his fourth of the year.
Just 2:53 into the third, Aiden Hansen-Bukata made it 4-2. He found a rebound in the slot and tallied his fifth of the campaign.
Crasa cut it back to one at 10:59 for his ninth of the season. Cameron Mitchell won a battle at the top of the crease, slid a pass to a wide-open Crasa at the right post and he tapped it in.
Mikey Colella and Evan Friesen ended any comeback attempt with goals just over three minutes apart and closed the scoring at 6-3.
Dickman pulls into the team-lead with his 22nd of the year and has goals in back-to-back games. Gavin Best has three points in his last two games. Bates collected his 39th helper of the year, putting him just three points shy of 60 for the season. Jeffers has assists in his last two outings.
Wichita went 0-for-2 on the power play. Utah was 1-for-2 on the man advantage.
The two teams resume their three-game series on Friday night. Faceoff is set for 8:10 p.m. CST.
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 Wichita Thunder battle the Utah Grizzlies |
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