Fourth-largest crowd in Wichita Thunder history watches win to keep ECHL playoff bid alive
In front of the fourth-largest attendance in franchise history, the Wichita Thunder kept their playoff hopes alive with a 3-1 win over Allen in a must-win game in the home finale at Intrust Bank Arena on Friday night.
Entering the final weekend of the regular season, Wichita was in a three-way tie with Utah and Rapid City for the fourth and final ECHL playoff spot with 70 points in the Mountain division standings.
Wichita received the help it needed from Idaho, which dispatched Rapid City in a 4-1 win that helped the Thunder leapfrog them in the standings. But Utah edged last-place Tulsa 5-3 to remain level with Wichita entering the final day of the regular season.
Because Utah has more regulation wins than Wichita, it holds the tiebreaker for the fourth and final playoff spot. That means a Utah win against last-place Tulsa in the regular-season finale would eliminate Wichita regardless of how the Thunder do on Saturday. But if Utah loses in overtime or a shootout, Wichita would advance with a win or if Utah loses in regulation, Wichita would advance with win or an overtime or regulation loss.
A rabid crowd — announced attendance was 12,459 — helped the Thunder’s defense pitch a shutout in the final 40 minutes to preserve the must-win victory.
Wichita scored the first goal of the game, as Michal Stinl put the Thunder up 1-0, then Jay Dickman doubled the lead on a power play goal less than two minutes later. Former Thunder star Stefan Fournier scored Allen’s only goal in the final two minutes of the first period, but the Americans never could find the equalizer. The Thunder scored an empty-net goal by Jake Wahlin in the closing seconds.
The Thunder capped off a successful home season where they finished 23-9-4 — one of the best records in the entire ECHL.
This story was originally published April 14, 2023 at 9:44 PM.
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