Thunder’s latest slide reaches eight

Allen’s 3-1 win over the Thunder on Saturday night at Intrust Bank Arena gave Wichita its eighth straight defeat in a season full of losing streaks, and it kept the team stuck on an ECHL-worst nine wins.

That was the total of the Thunder’s 2009-10 season, which prompted an overhaul that included the hiring of coach Kevin McClelland the following season. After two straight appearances in the Central Hockey League finals, McClelland is guiding the Thunder to what will likely be the third season in a row with no postseason.

The Thunder fell behind CHL opponents in the last season of that league and has failed in its game of catch-up during its two ECHL seasons. Wichita ranks last in the 28-team circuit in goals scored, goals allowed and power-play efficiency.

“I don’t hear talking, nobody is going to say anything to me,” McClleand said when asked of the comparisons between this team and the one he inherited. “They may say it behind my back, but nobody is talking to me like that. Nine wins and we still have 30 games left.”

The Thunder (9-24-4-4) will assuredly get to double-digit victories at some point, but first it must solve how to end losing streaks before they get out of hand.

At no point has Wichita lost a game this season without losing either the game before or the game after, and most often the Thunder has lost those games, too. It has losing streaks of three, four (twice), six, seven and eight games.

Wichita has won consecutive games three times but never three in a row. The losing has come in all forms – close defeats, blowouts, overtime and shootouts, but those aren’t easily deciphered when looking at the big picture or involving the negative emotion of so many low points.

“It’s tough because we’re in every game,” McClelland said. “Tonight it ended up being a bad matchup defensively against their line, and sure enough it’s in their net.”

That goal, a third-period score in which Allen’s Chris Crane got behind a group of defenders to score a point-blank goal, put Allen ahead 2-1. The Americans added an empty-net goal later while the time in between was spent as a display of the Thunder’s shortcomings.

Wichita has deficient team speed that keeps it from setting up 2-on-1 or 3-on-2 advantages, because opposing defenseman are often able to keep up with Thunder forwards. The Thunder also has a scarcity of individual playmakers, so Wichita is unable to sustain puck control long enough to score opportunistic goals.

Instead, Wichita’s scoring is the culmination of a few good bounces or opponent mistakes, which aren’t reliable nightly factors.

“They were just taking away what we were trying to do, and that’s when you’ve got to give them something else,” McClelland said. “You’ve got to take what they’re giving you. We didn’t – we just kept going back to the same thing.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2016 at 10:38 PM with the headline "Thunder’s latest slide reaches eight."