Defensive-zone mistakes hurt Thunder in loss to Alaska

Returning home after a nine-game road trip didn’t solve the season-long struggles the Wichita Thunder has faced, and a 4-2 loss to the Alaska Aces back at Intrust Bank Arena on Tuesday night was representative of a season where hard work has been overshadowed by costly mistakes.

The Thunder found themselves in a 2-0 hole, thanks to a pair of power-play goals, but a Wichita goal in the final minute of the second period produced some momentum to set up a potential third-period rally.

Instead, the comeback attempt was lost in the first minute of the third period on a mishandled puck behind the Wichita net that led to a turnover and an easy Alaska goal.

“We get that big goal at the end of the second period, but then we go and let a soft one in the third period,” coach Kevin McClelland said. “That can’t happen.”

Even with the blunder, the Thunder got the goal back when Christian Isackson flung the puck through traffic and scored to pull within one again later in the third period. The Thunder had the remaining 13 minutes to tie it up and used the time to put the last 10 of its 40 shots on goalie Jacob DeSerres. But the equalizer never materialized, and another letdown in the Thunder zone allowed Alaska to take advantage of an empty net with 24 seconds left.

“We came back, pulled the goalie, had some chances down low, didn’t get any pucks to the net and sure enough another soft play on our zone on the wall and they get an empty-net goal,” McClelland said. “We put up 40 shots, but eventually some of them have to start going in.”

The loss was the third in a row for the Thunder and was perhaps more disappointing after starting the month with a three-game winning streak. The team had hoped to shake off a pair of losses at Allen over the weekend by returning home, but the first of two games against Alaska this week was just another loss in a season full of missed opportunities.

The Thunder (14-36-6-6) further sunk into last place in the ECHL’s Western Division with a loss to an Alaska team with the second-worst record in the conference (23-32-4-3). With playoff hockey out of reach and the regular season winding down, the motivation to keep going has to come from within.

“At this point it’s more about pride as a team and as individuals,” Isackson said. “We don’t want to make the organization look bad. It’s about us trying to do our best, and if we can finish strong the last 10 games it’ll be good for us.”

Though frustrated, McClelland said his players aren’t giving up.

“The guys are working hard,” he said. “There’s things that we’ve got to cut out of our game that are costing us every night. Other teams are doing it too, but we seem not to capitalize on them.”

Stephen Perfetto scored Alaska’s first two goals – both on power plays – and assisted in a third. DeSerres stopped 38 of Wichita’s 40 shots for the third win in his last four starts. Alaska has won three of its last four games.

Sean Bonar made 24 saves on 27 shots for Wichita.

This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 10:47 PM with the headline "Defensive-zone mistakes hurt Thunder in loss to Alaska."