Jeffrey Lutz’s ECHL report (Feb. 11)

Rivalry watch

The Thunder has ready-made rivalries with Tulsa and Missouri, the closest teams to Wichita geographically and two of the Thunder’s longest-running opponents.

Those feuds have taken a backseat, at least lately, to Wichita’s dislike of Allen. More recently, bad blood has formed with Quad City as the teams tussle for playoff positioning.

Allen defeated the Thunder in the Central Hockey League finals in 2013 and the Americans won the final CHL championship last season. They lead the Central Division comfortably over Wichita and Quad City but have played several competitive games with the Thunder.

“There’s definitely a different feeling when you play those guys,” Thunder forward Nikita Kashirsky said. “You want to go out there and battle a little harder. There’s always a different kind of mindset for those games.”

The Thunder is seeing plenty of its old CHL opponents in the ECHL, sharing a division with six other holdovers and playing 67 of 70 games against them. There is imbalance within the schedule that leads to clusters of games against mostly the same opponent, such as Wichita playing Quad City seven times in five weeks.

Familiarity with the Mallards created a mini-rivalry that may carry over to their final two meetings in March. Quad City leads the Thunder by two points for second in the Central, and the teams have played several games dominated by trash talk and physicality. Their game Saturday featured 34 penalties.

“We played a pretty tough game against them (previously) and we ended up losing,” Kashirsky said. “There ended up being some words said by their coach and their team in the newspaper and stuff like that. We found out about it, and since then it’s been pretty emotional.”

The Thunder hasn’t had as many emotional clashes with Missouri and Tulsa this season. Both teams trail Wichita in the standings and games against them have been more sporadic and spaced out.

Next season, Wichita won’t experience any of its rivalries as often. The Thunder will play more against inter-division teams, erasing games with Allen, Quad City, Tulsa and Missouri but perhaps making those games more meaningful.

“I would say they would be even bigger,” Kashirsky said. “Division games have always been big for us, because that’s when it counts.”

Around the ECHL

▪ Wichita has been one of the league’s busiest teams over the last two weeks, with several call-ups, trades and other transactions. On Tuesday, days after Danick Gauthier returned from a brief stint in the Triple-A American Hockey League, goalie Tyler Bunz was promoted to Oklahoma City of the AHL. The Thunder has added forward Anthony Perdicaro in a trade with Evansville while dealing Travis Granbois to Evansville. Wichita traded with Orlando for forward Nick Larson, who opted not to report.

▪ The league’s two best teams both sit in second place in their divisions because they have played fewer games than the leaders. Toledo has 61 points and a .726 points percentage but trails Fort Wayne, which has played three more games, by four points in the North. In the East, Florida has a higher points percentage than Reading but has played three fewer games and trails by three points.

ECHL alumni

Nobody played for as many NHL teams after spending time in the ECHL as Alex Auld, whose ECHL career consisted of six games with the Columbia (S.C.) Inferno in 2001-02. Auld debuted with the Vancouver Canucks that season and played 81 games for Vancouver over four seasons. He also played for Florida, Phoenix, Boston, Ottawa, Dallas, the New York Rangers and Montreal. His career ended with 26 games in Austria two seasons ago.

Days gone by

The 2007-08 Texas Wildcatters set league records with 23 consecutive games without a loss and for fewest losses in a season, with nine. The Wildcatters, who spent two seasons in the ECHL, were sent away from the league permanently with a second-round playoff defeat that season. Riley Emmerson, a well-known Thunder opponent for Arizona and Missouri of the CHL the last two seasons, led the 07-08 Wildcatters with 142 penalty minutes.

Team profile

The Colorado Eagles, an ECHL member since 2011, have had two coaches in their 12 seasons. Chris Stewart coached them for their first five seasons in the CHL, winning championships in 2005 and ’07. Stewart then gave way to current Thunder coach Kevin McClelland, who led the Eagles to the CHL Finals in 2009. Stewart took over again in 2011 for the final CHL season and has coached the Eagles to three ECHL playoffs.

Key statistic: 13

Age of Trenton Dancaster, the Thunder’s honorary captain for Friday’s game against Missouri. Dancaster was diagnosed with a heart condition that led to organ failure when he was three days old and given a slim chance to live more than a month. Dancaster will be presented with a jersey and spend time with the team before Friday’s game.

He said it

“That’s what happens when you play so many games in such a short period of time against the same team (Thunder). The league can do whatever they want to do but that’s just the nature of the beast. It’s unfortunate that it happened, but it happened.”

– Quad City coach Terry Ruskowski to the Quad City Times following last Saturday’s game in Moline, Ill.

This story was originally published February 11, 2015 at 8:05 PM with the headline "Jeffrey Lutz’s ECHL report (Feb. 11)."