Thunder Claims Win in McClelland's 600th Game as Coach

Independence, MO (Nov. 28th) - Coaching in his 600th professional game on Friday night, Head Coach Kevin McClelland was rewarded by his team as Wichita (7-6-1-2-) defeated the Missouri Mavericks (6-9-0-0) at the Independence Events Center. The Thunder had four different players find the back of the net, including Erick Lizon who recorded his third of the season. Wichita improves to 4-1-0-0 in the Independence Cup Series against Missouri and will not see the Mavericks until the end of December.

The first period was a hard hitting affair that would lead to plenty of penalty minutes in the second frame. Lizon picked up where he left off on Wednesday night, finding a rebound in the right circle and beat Maxime Lagace to give the Thunder a 1-0 lead. Nikita Kashirsky increased the lead to 2-0 after a Mike Wilson wrist shot clanked off the left post and he was there to tip it in at 17:27.

In the second, tempers flared just two minutes in when Dan Milan took a shot in the face from Josh Brittain after a scoring chance and led to an altercation. Fisticuffs erupted seven minutes later when Lizon and Martin Lee dropped the gloves. The two teams combined for 60 minutes in penalties alone in the second. Wichita took advantage of a Missouri mistake and added a power play goal at 17:06. Ian Lowe got to a rebound at the right side of the net and put it home to make it 3-0.

Missouri came out hard in the third in an attempt to get back into the game. The Mavericks outshot the Thunder 8-0 at one point and broke through with a goal at 1:05. Jack Downing put in a rebound after the puck hit Tim Boron, went straight up in the air that created a scramble for the loose puck. Downing, playing in his Missouri debut, cut the lead to two with his third of the season. Wichita re-gained a three-goal margin when Todd Hosmer fired one past Lagace from the right circle at 11:16, making it 4-1. Despite being outshot 11-3 in the third, Wichita went onto win the contest by the final of 4-1.

Lizon and Lowe have goals in back-to-back games. Danick Gauthier finished with two assists, giving him six multi-point games on the season. Nikita Kashirsky potted his fourth of the season and needs two more to reach 100 for his career. Wichita's streak of reaching 30 shots in a game comes to an end at nine-straight. Boron claims his fourth win of the season, stopping 21 of 22 shots. Lagace takes the loss in his Mavericks debut, stopping 22 of 26 shots on net.

Wichita went 1-for-4 on the power play. Missouri was 0-for-3 with the man advantage and are now 0-for-15 against the Thunder this season on the power play.

Wichita returns home on Saturday night to host the Allen Americans at 7:05 p.m. Come join us as Marvel's Spider-Man swings into the Air Capital this Saturday. He will be available for pictures and autographs throughout the contest.

Individual tickets are on sale now. Don't delay! Tickets can be purchased at the INTRUST Arena Box office, by calling 755-SEAT or go online at www.selectaseat.com. Stay up-to-date on all the news during the season by visiting www.wichitathunder.com.

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-