Bates Leads Thunder to Late Victory over Mavericks
WICHITA, KS – Peter Bates scored the game-winner with 1:39 left in the contest, leading the Wichita Thunder to a 3-1 victory over the Kansas City Mavericks on Saturday evening. The Thunder scored two power-play goals and Brett Boeing netted his first goal since joining the Thunder. Roman Basran was fantastic between the pipes, stopping 28 shots to earn his second professional victory.
Wichita took the lead 12:10 into the contest when Quinn Preston scored on the power-play. Preston won the draw inside the Kansas City zone, pulling it back to Cole MacDonald at the point, who blasted a shot. Preston redirected the puck past Shane Starrett for his 21st goal of the year.
The one goal lead held through the first intermission despite the Mavericks outshooting Wichita, 12-9. In the second, Kansas City outshot Wichita once again, 12-10, this time tying the game when Hugo Roy scored his 15th goal of the season midway through the period. Casey Carreau led a 2-on-1 break into the Wichita end. He passed the puck to Roy who redirected past Basran to knot the game at one.
This game looked like it was destined for overtime, but Bates delivered the second power-play goal of the game for the Thunder with just under two minutes left in the contest. Seconds after Ryan Harrison was called for crosschecking penalty, Michal Stinil moved down the left wall, passing the puck across the slot to Bates at the back door. He tipped it by a diving Starrett for his 14th goal of the year.
With a little over a minute left in the contest, Kansas City pulled Starrett hoping to get the equalizer. However, Boeing sealed the victory with an empty net tally, his first goal since joining the Thunder.
Basran was spectacular in net, stopping all but one of the 29 shots he faced. The Thunder netminder moved to 2-4-0 while lowering his goals-against average to 3.21. He now has a 0.917 save percentage. MacDonald finished with two assists and Preston had a goal and an assist for the Thunder.
The Wichita Thunder (28-28-5) head to the road for a three-game set against the Iowa Heartlanders (15-32-13) starting on Wednesday. The puck drops at 7:05.
by Robert Pannier
