BOISE, ID – Rémi Poirier continues to be a nemesis to the Wichita Thunder, earning his fourth victory of the season against the team as he led the Idaho Steelheads to a 3-1 victory on Friday. Poirier stopped 26 shots to earn his 11th straight victory. Idaho added two power-play goals. Michal Stinil had the only goal for the Thunder and Evan Buitenhuis stopped 39 shots.

Both Poirier and Buitenhuis were on their game in the first period, as neither team was able to find the back in the net. Idaho outshot Wichita, 10-7 and carried that momentum into the second period, outshooting the Thunder, 20-5. That helped the Steelheads grab a 2-0 lead.

Buitenhuis had shut down Idaho through the first 17 minutes of the frame, but Owen Headrick put the Steelheads on top at 17:30. Headrick made a move through the neutral zone, coming in on Buitenhuis before beating him with a backhander to make it 1-0.

With 52 seconds left in the frame, A.J. White extended the lead to two, netting his 13th goal of the year. With Idaho on the power-play, Matt Register took a shot that White redirected past Buitenhuis to put Idaho up by two heading to the second intermission.

Wichita had been dominated through much of the first 15 minutes of this contest, but Buitenhuis was clearly the difference. He saved 39 of 41 shots on Friday, and his team finally rewarded him at 9:17 of the third when Stinil delivered a power-play goal. Kenny Hausinger passed the puck to Stinil at the left face-off circle, who drilled a one-timer by Poirier for his 19th goal of the year.

The Thunder were back into the contest and pressured the Idaho netminder over the final 10 minutes, but a controversial call by the linesman helped Idaho clinch the game. With Buitenhuis on the bench for the extra attacker and the Steelheads on the power-play, Idaho cleared the puck the length of the ice. It appeared that Timur Ibragimov had beaten Wade Murphy to the puck, but the linesman waved off the icing, allowing Murphy to gain control and fire the puck into the empty net to seal the 3-1 victory.

The loss dropped Wichita to 23-15-3 while Idaho improved to 37-7-1. These two teams will go at it again on Saturday. The puck drops at 8:10.

Gamesheet

by Robert Pannier