Thunder can’t collect an elusive victory
The Thunder won’t get the morale boost that comes with playing postseason hockey. Playing spoiler for another franchise is likely out of the question, and there are even long odds for a winning streak.
It can’t be too much to ask, however, for just one win – can it?
Wichita lost in a shootout 2-1 to Quad City on Tuesday night at Intrust Bank Arena. The Thunder has lost eight in a row, 17 of 18 and 23 of its last 26 games. Since starting the new year off with a pair of road victories, Wichita has lost four overtime games and twice in shootouts.
The losing has worn on the Thunder (10-31-5-5) so badly that a single, solitary victory would dramatically lift the team’s spirit.
“That would be big,” Thunder forward Andy Huff said. “We’re having close games, and then for one reason or another we can’t quite close it out. Whether it’s a bounce or a misread or something like that, it’s not quite going our way. It would be huge if we could win one of these, just for everyone’s mind, mentally.”
It’s difficult to make an argument against the Thunder deserving a win, even putting aside any emotional attachment. Wichita has won consecutive games three times this season but never three in a row.
The Thunder hasn’t lost two in a row – all of its 41 losses have come within losing streaks of at least three games, and the current eight-game slide is one away from the season’s low point, a nine-game skid that spanned 16 days in January.
Wichita has won at least 10 fewer games than 23 of the other 27 ECHL franchises. Fifteen teams own at least 15 more wins, and three – Manchester, Florida and Missouri – have at least 20 more.
The desperation is evident – the Thunder pushes hard for the potential game-winner but it never comes. On Tuesday, Huff scored in the first round of the shootout but the Thunder went scoreless for the next three rounds as Quad City won in sudden death.
“Tonight in particular, we know we can play good defense,” Huff said. “We have good goaltending, we hold teams to one goal, we just need to score some more on the offensive side of things. You don’t win a whole lot of games 1-0, so when you’re only scoring one or two goals every game, it’s hard to win a lot.”
The Thunder has scored 10 goals in the last seven games and exactly one in each of the last four. Wichita would take the 1-0 win, or any win. It just wants one. Somehow.
It would mean a lot.
“It would. It would,” Thunder coach Kevin McClelland said. “The guys are still out there working hard. We have some chances. … We’ve just got to keep going.”
Quad City | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | — | 2 |
Wichita | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 1 |
First period
Scoring—1. Wichita, Chelios (Harris), 6:10; 2. Quad City, Follmer (Neal, Nikiforov), 12:47. Penalties—Quad City, Bussieres (fighting major), 7:30; Wichita, Milan (fighting major), 7:30; Wichita, Reum (holding), 17:18.
Second period
Penalties—Wichita, Springer (tripping), 7:28; Wichita, Springer (hooking), 17:52.
Third period
Penalties—Quad City, Follmer (holding), 9:27.
Overtime
None
Shootout
Quad City—Carey yes, Koules no, Collins no, Follmer yes; Wichita—Huff yes, Kerbashian no, Lowe no, Chelios no.
Power play—Quad City 0-3, Wichita 0-1. Shots—Quad City 11-15-13-3-1—43, Wichita 7-11-14-2-0—34. Saves—Quad City, Hoffman 33-34; Wichita, Rollheiser 41-42.
T—2:32. A—2,523.
This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 10:46 PM with the headline "Thunder can’t collect an elusive victory."