Thunder beats Allen in shootout

The Thunder was one mistake from its seventh straight loss Wednesday night, a misstep from losing another opportunity to make up ground in the race for the final ECHL Central Division playoff spot.

So when Kenton Miller faked out Allen goaltender Joel Rumpel and scored with a backhand, knotting the shootout with a final-round goal, a desperate team made the most of its last chance.

Mike MacIntyre followed two rounds later with the game-winner, giving the Thunder two needed points in the playoff chase and a 4-3 victory over the division-champ Americans at Intrust Bank Arena.

“That’s what’s been happening to us lately, we’ve been losing those games,” Thunder coach Kevin McClelland said. “Tonight it took the last shooter in the last round of the shootout to get to extra shooters, but we got it done.”

And a night of encouraging signs ended on a right note against the division’s best team.

“We have to win pretty much every game now, and maybe Tulsa can do us some favors,” said Thunder forward Justin Bernhardt, who scored two goals. “That’d be all right with me.”

Fourth-place Tulsa has 73 points with five games remaining. Wichita has 70 points with four games to play – all at home, two against Tulsa.

“We know that our season’s desperate now,” McClelland said. “We have to play desperate from here on out.”

Aside from an 0-for-5 power play night, there were encouraging signs the Thunder was exiting the doldrums. The Thunder led 2-0 in a time when two-goal leads have been rare. Grant Rollheiser turned away shot after shot when Allen more than doubled Wichita’s shot total most of the game.

Wichita gave away the lead by the middle of the second period, but took it back on the night’s prettiest goal. Mike Wilson waited, waited and waited before passing to Bernhardt, who scored for a 3-2 lead.

“That was a very patient play. Very,” Bernhardt said. “He sucked the (defenseman) down and the goalie came over and he made it easy for me.”

A scoreless third period led to overtime, where 4-on-4 hockey and even 3-on-3 after dual penalties led to no scoring.

“You could tell in the overtime we were trying to win it then,” McClelland said, “because our shootout record is not very good.”

It looked worse for a couple minutes. Allen led 1-0 before Miller took the Thunder’s final chance. Two rounds later, MacIntyre faked low and went high to beat Rumpel for the win.

“It’s something I’ve been working on the last couple days in practice,” MacIntyre said. “I thought I’d go with what works and I got lucky.”

The Thunder is off until Saturday’s game against last-place Brampton. Then two next week against Tulsa before finishing with Allen again.

“This fight’s not over until the end, you know?” MacIntyre said. “The playoffs are right there and we’re going to keep battling until we get to the end and squeak in. All the boys want to do it.”

Notes – Wichita is 8-8 against Allen this season.… Former Thunder goalie Tyler Bunz was called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City to the Edmonton Oilers. Bunz was 6-10-0-1 with Wichita this season.

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 10:52 PM with the headline "Thunder beats Allen in shootout."