Game Day: Wichita at Colorado, December 9th

Loveland, CO (Dec. 9th) - Wichita returns to the Budweiser Events Center for the first time in four seasons to take on the Colorado Eagles. Get ready for the match-up with this Wichita Brewing Company Game Day Capsule:

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

WICHITAHOME: 5-6-0-1AWAY: 1-8-0-0OVERALL: 6-14-0-1

TEAM LEADERSGoals: Gauthier, 5Assists: Sakaris, 9Points: Sakaris, 13+/-: Milan, +3PIM: Milan, 39

COLORADOHOME: 6-5-2-0AWAY: 2-7-0-0OVERALL: 8-12-2-0

TEAM LEADERSGoals: Mychan, 10Assists: Daavettila, Marto, 13Points: Daavettila, 20+/-: Daavettila, +3PIM: Bootland, 104

SEASON-SERIESOct. 30 INTRUST 5-2Oct. 31 INTRUST 2-1Dec. 9 BEC 8:05 p.m.Dec. 11 BEC 8:05 p.m.Dec. 12 BEC 8:05 p.m.Feb. 5 INTRUST 7:05 p.m.

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

HEAD-TO-HEAD - This is the third meeting of the season between the Thunder and the Eagles. All-time, Wichita is 22-29-4 against Colorado and 6-18-2 on the road in the series.

WELCOME BACK - Head Coach Kevin McClelland returns to a place he once called home tonight. The former Stanley Cup Champion was the bench boss in Colorado for two seasons, from 2007-09. He went 87-30-11 and claimed the Governor's Cup during the 2008-09 season. He guided the Eagles to the 2009 President's Cup Finals only to fall to the Texas Brahmas in five games. After leaving Colorado, McClelland was named as the head coach of the Wichita Thunder.

SCORING EARLY - Out of the 42 goals the Thunder have scored this season, 19 of those have come in the first period.

TWO TIME - The line of Michael Neal, Dean Chelios and Mason Baptista provided all the scoring last night. Neal and Chelios each had a goal and an assist while Baptista had a pair of helpers in the losing effort.

MILESTONES - Ian Lowe hit a milestone, notching his 100th ECHL point last week. He needs 13 more games to have played in 300 as a pro. He also needs five 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. 160 of his 195 points have come donning Thunder blue.

SPECIAL - Colorado comes into the game tonight with the league's top power play (23.9%) and third ranked penalty kill (87.9%). Wichita is 4-for-18 over the last four games on the man advantage (22.2%).

THUNDERBOLTS...Danick Gauthier leads the team in shots with 54...Martin Nemcik and Landon Oslanksi picked assists in their first games in a Thunder uniform on Saturday at Missouri...Wichita's penalty kill is ranked ninth at home (86%) and 17th overall (81.3%)... Wichita is 4-0-0-1 when leading after two...Wichita is 3-3-0-0 when tied after one...Wichita is 4-3-0-1 in one goal games...

COLORADO NOTES - Darryl Bootland leads the league with 104 penalty minutes while Teigan Zahn is second with 84...Jesse Mychan is fifth in PIM with 69 and Sean Zimmerman is sixth with 67...Mychan is tied for fifth with 10 goals...Trent Daavettila and Jake Marto are tied for 16th with 13 assists...Kris Lazaruk is sixth in the ECHL in goals against average (1.97) and save percentage (.923)...

AROUND THE ECHL - There are six other games tonight in the ECHL. Manchester heads to Brampton. Norfolk goes to Elmira. Evansville plays at Toledo. Reading goes to Florida. Idaho visits Allen. Alaska is in Utah.

UP NEXT - Wichita takes on Colorado on Friday night at 8:05 p.m. CST.

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-