Game Day: Wichita at Colorado, December 12th

Loveland, CO (Dec. 12th) - Wichita plays its third-straight game against Colorado tonight in northern Colorado. Get ready for the match-up with our Wichita Brewing Company Game Day Capsule:

TONIGHT'S MATCH-UPWichita at Colorado - 8:05 p.m., Budwesier Events Center, Loveland, CO

WICHITAHOME: 5-6-0-1AWAY: 1-10-0-0OVERALL: 6-16-0-1

TEAM LEADERSGoals: Gauthier, Lowe, Miller, 5Assists: Sakaris, 9Points: Sakaris, 13+/-: Milan, +2PIM: Milan, 39

COLORADOHOME: 8-5-2-0AWAY: 2-7-0-0OVERALL: 10-12-2-0

TEAM LEADERSGoals: Mychan, 10Assists: Daavettila, Marto, 13Points: Daavettila, 22+/-: Daavettila, +4PIM: Bootland, 117

SEASON-SERIESOct. 30 INTRUST 5-2, WOct. 31 INTRUST 2-1, WDec. 9 BEC 2-1, LDec. 11 BEC 3-2, LDec. 12 BEC 8:05 p.m.Feb. 5 INTRUST 7:05 p.m.

Wichita is 2-2-0-0 vs. Colorado this season

HEAD-TO-HEAD - This is the fifth meeting of the season between the Thunder and the Eagles. All-time, Wichita is 22-31-4 against Colorado and 6-20-2 on the road in the series.

TODAY - Wichita finishes its western swing this evening against Colorado. The Eagles have taken the first two contests, winning 3-2 last night and tying the season-series with each team holding home-ice. The last three games have been one-goal affairs as Colorado claimed a 2-1 victory on Wednesday night. With the loss, Wichita is seven points back of Tulsa for third place while the Eagles are in third place in the West, four points back of Rapid City for second place. Trent Daavettila leads Colorado with four goals against the Thunder and has scored in both games this week. Darryl Bootland has 33 penalty minutes against Wichita. Peter Sakaris leads Wichita with five points (3g, 2a) against the Eagles

TURNING POINT - Two possible plays last night could have been turning points in the game. The first came with seven minutes to go in the contest. Andy Huff was skating up the ice when his stick was slashed out of his hands. The play continued and seconds later, Joey Sides was called for a double minor for attempting to spear. Instead of a possible power play, the Thunder had to kill for the next four minutes. With five minutes remaining, Colorado appeared to re-take a two goal lead when Kyle Ostrow slid the puck past David Shantz while he was in the crease. The official immediately waived the off the goal and the face-off came outside the Thunder line.

FIRING GALLERY - Wichita outshot the Eagles last night for the first time in the season-series. In the previous three games, the Thunder were held below 23 shots on net by Colorado. Last night, Wichita had 32 shots on Eric Levine.

MILESTONES - Ian Lowe hit a milestone, notching his 100th ECHL point last week. He needs 11 more games to have played in 300 as a pro. He also needs four more points to hit the 200-point plateau. The fifth-year pro out of Bradwardine, BC is currently in his fourth season in the Air Capital. 161 of his 196 points have come donning Thunder blue. With two more games, Erick Lizon will have reached 200 playing in the ECHL.

ON-SIDE - Joey Sides got the Thunder on the board last night with the game's first tally and his first goal of the season. Sides played in Colorado, spending parts of two seasons with the Eagles. In 2012-13, he had 21 goals and 40 points and was a +14.

THUNDERBOLTS...Danick Gauthier and Landon Oslanski lead the team in shots with 57...Oslanski scored his first goal in a Thunder uniform last night...Kenton Miller recorded his fifth goal of the season on Wednesday night and first since November 25th... Wichita is 4-0-0-1 when leading after two...Wichita is 3-4-0-0 when tied after one...Wichita is 4-5-0-1 in one goal games...

COLORADO NOTES - Trent Daavettila has goals in four-straight games (5g) and goals in five of the last six...Darryl Bootland leads the league with 117 penalty minutes while Teigan Zahn is third with 83...Sean Zimmerman is in fifth with 71 PIMs ...Mychan is tied for 10th with 10 goals...Eric Levine won his second-straight game against the Thunder last night...

AROUND THE ECHL - There are 11 other games tonight in the ECHL. Brampton visits Kalamazoo. Manchester goes to Adirondack. Reading plays at Florida. Norfolk travels to Elmira. Orlando is in Atlanta. Greenville goes to South Carolina. Fort Wayne plays at Indy. Evansville stays in Cincinnati. Toledo takes on Wheeling. Alaska goes to Utah. Quad City stays in Rapid City.

UP NEXT - Wichita finishes its seven-game road trip with a pair of games next week at Tulsa.

Individual tickets for all games are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased at the INTRUST Arena Box office, by calling 855-755-SEAT or go online at www.selectaseat.com.

Follow along with us on our social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter (@wichita_thunder), Snapchat (wichthunder), Instagram (Wichita_Thunder) and LinkedIn, presented by Wichita Brewing Company.

About the ECHL

The ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown into a coast-to-coast league with 28 teams in 20 states and one Canadian province for its 27th season in 2014-15. There have been 541 players who have started their career in the ECHL have gone on to play in the National Hockey League, including 29 who made their NHL debuts in the 2013-14 season. The ECHL had affiliations with 26 of the 30 NHL teams in 2013-14, marking the 17th consecutive season that the league had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL. Further information on the ECHL is available on its website at ECHL.com, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

-Thunder-