Thunder continues to seek scoring

The Thunder’s newest hockey players are scoring – they’re just not scoring enough. It’s a team-wide issue that stretches beyond tenure.

The roster moves coach Kevin McClelland has made during the season seem to have helped the Thunder. But since Wichita (10-27-4-4) sits in last place in the ECHL Central division with the most goals allowed, the fewest scored and the league’s least efficient power play, it’s difficult to pinpoint the degree of improvement.

Of the 13 Thunder players who have scored at least 10 points this season – some whose statistics have been combined with previous stops – eight weren’t in Wichita to start the year.

“Maybe it’s because we started off having a tough year, but I feel like a lot of the new guys have contributed to us playing better,” said Thunder forward Andy Huff, an offseason addition. “The chemistry has been there almost off the bat. A lot of the guys we’ve brought in the last month or two, they come in and they have success right away.”

It just doesn’t lead to team success for the Thunder, which has won once since Jan. 4 while struggling in close games and finding the short end of several lopsided outcomes.

Wichita has scored 91 goals and surrendered 154. Much of that ratio can be attributed to 12 defeats in which the Thunder has been outscored 66-19, an average score of 5.5-1.6.

In the Thunder’s other games, it has been outscored by a much more manageable 88-72. But since Wichita has lost 16 games decided by one goal, it hasn’t been able to make better use of that discrepancy.

The scoring struggles have afflicted the entire roster. Even with the Thunder’s productive in-season additions, Wichita doesn’t have a player among the ECHL’s top 105 in scoring, meaning the other teams have an average of around four players on the list before Logan Nelson’s 33 points is mentioned.

Nelson broke out with a hat trick on Jan. 27, and several other players have that capability. But McClelland sees a team without a scoring mindset, especially on the power play, where persistence isn’t often detected.

“That’s when we need to score on the power play, is to get that fifth goal, get that sixth goal (after scoring four),” McClelland said. “We don’t have that mentality yet, and I’d sure like to see if we can get it.”

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 8:51 PM with the headline "Thunder continues to seek scoring."