Quad City goalie turns back Thunder
Wichita goaltender David Shantz’s play last week earned him the ECHL’s weekly goaltending honor, but Saturday night he met his match in Quad City goalie Brody Hoffman.
The 6-foot-4 Hoffman slammed the door shut on the Thunder, stopping 44 of 45 shots – including 22 saves in the third period – and the Mallards made the most of their shots in a 4-1 victory at Intrust Bank Arena.
“He was good, especially when we put the push on in the third period,” Thunder coach Kevin McClelland said. “He made some good saves and allowed them to get that third goal that sort of opened it up for them.”
Quad City (33-26-4) backed Hoffman’s play by getting a goal past Shantz in each period. The Mallards opened the scoring when Matt Carey deflected a Jordan Knackstedt shot past Shantz in a scramble at the Wichita net. But Shantz managed to deny Quad City the rest of the period.
“We’ve got to be better early on,” McClelland said. “The first goal, we gave them. We got full possession and we throw it out … and they hit the guy back-door and it’s 1-0.
“We’ve got to start off better. We’ve shown that we’re a team that can’t come back from deficits. This league’s too good to give another team an early start – especially in our building.”
The Thunder finally broke through against Hoffman at the 16:37 mark when Michael Neal scored off assists by Dean Chelios and Dalton Reum.
“They were on us in the third period pretty hard,” Mallards coach Terry Ruskowski said.
Hoffman is one year removed from playing college hockey for the University of Vermont and was in his 35th game with Quad City.
“You look at every successful team has a streak together, you look at their goaltender is the reason why they’re doing so well and winning all these games,” McClelland said.
McClelland said his team needed to put more pressure on Hoffman before the third period.
“You’ve got to make it more greasier and put pressure on him,” he said. “If a goalie can’t see a puck, he’s not going to stop it.”
The same two teams will play again Tuesday night at Intrust Bank Arena.
Quad City | 1 | 1 | 2 | — | 4 |
Wichita | 0 | 0 | 1 | — | 1 |
First period
Scoring – 1. Quad City, Carey (Knackstedt), 6:58. Penalties – Quad City, Pochiro (roughing), 11:05; Quad City, Pochiro (match – attempt deliberate injury), 11:05; Wichita, Leroux (instigating), 11:05; Wichita, Leroux (fighting major), 11:05; Wichita, Nelson (charging), 11:05, Quad City, Eberle (hooking), 11:27.
Second period
Scoring – 2. Quad City, Archambault (pp) (Coldwell, Warning), 6:24. Penalties – Wichita, Alberga (slashing), 5:33; Quad City, Nedomiel (elbowing), Wichita, Nelson (elbowing), 11:24; Quad City, Gudbranson (slashing), 19:06.
Third period
Scoring – 3. Quad City, Monfredo (Archambault, Warning), 8:38; 4. Quad City, Archambault (unassisted)(empty-net), 15:52; 5. Wichita, Neal (Chelios, Reum), 16:37. Penalties – Quad City, Monfredo (tripping), 5:14.
Power play – Quad City 1 for 3; Wichita 0 for 4. Shots – Quad City, 11-9-3—23; Wichita, 10-9-23—45. Saves – Quad City, Hoffman 44 on 45 shots; Wichita, Shantz, 19 on 22 shots. T – 2:26. A – 5,961.
This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 11:02 PM with the headline "Quad City goalie turns back Thunder."