Winners again at home, the Wichita Thunder are now in first place in the ECHL
It’s only mid-November, but the Wichita Thunder are the top team in the 26-team ECHL.
The Thunder have made the most of their early-season homestand, adding another victory at Intrust Bank Arena on Wednesday in a 4-3 win over second-place Rapid City Rush (8-2-4). Wichita has now collected 13 of 16 possible points at home and won eight of its last 10 games, as the Thunder (8-3-3) have an ECHL-leading 19 points.
Wichita won a thriller on Wednesday, capitalizing on a power play with 13 seconds remaining on Jack Combs’ game-winner and his second goal of the game.
Thanks to an outstanding individual defensive play by Fabrizio Ricci to steal the puck near his own blue zone, the Thunder took an early lead in the game with a short-handed goal when Ricci tucked away a breakaway shot in the eighth minute.
Goalkeeper Mitch Gillam, who earned his seventh victory of the season and stopped 34 of 37 shots, sparked the Thunder’s second goal. Gillam saw Combs roaming free and came out of the net to fire a pass to Combs to jump-start a breakaway opportunity that Combs finished like a veteran.
Rapid City took a 3-2 lead early in the third quarter, but the Thunder’s reinforcements from Bakersfield in the AHL paid dividends in the third. Wichita received three forwards on Tuesday, as Cameron Hebig and Nolan Vesey were reassigned and Jakob Stukel was loaned to Wichita from Bakersfield.
Playing in his first game in a Thunder uniform, Hebig equalized on a wrist shot in the third period to set up Combs’ game-winner. Combs drew a tripping penalty late in the period to set up the power play, then made Rapid City pay by scoring his fifth goal of the season on an assist from Ostap Safin, who had two assists in the game.
It was an important early-season win over a Mountain Division rival, as Wichita (19 points) moves in front of Rapid City (18 points) and Allen (18 points) for first place.
The Thunder will conclude its homestand on Friday night with a 7:05 p.m. game against the Idaho Steelheads (7-3-3).
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