Thunder Falls Short in Front of Large Home Crowd

Wichita, KS (March 30th) - Wichita fought back from a 3-0 deficit, but came up just short in 3-2 loss to Tulsa on Friday night at INTRUST Bank Arena.

The Thunder hosted their largest home crowd of the season as 13,175 attended tonight's contest.

With the loss, the Thunder and Americans are now tied for third place with 74 points as Allen gained a point against Colorado. Tulsa moves within one of both teams.

Ralph Cuddemi notched his 30th goal of the season and Travis Ewanyk added his 13th of the year in the losing effort.

The only goal of the first came four minutes into the game when Kyle Rhodes stole the puck at the red line, skated up the right wing and wired one past Nick Riopel.

Tulsa added two in the second period to make it 3-0. Roman Ammirato tipped in a pass from Evan Richardson at 11:21 to increase the lead to 2-0. Former Thunder forward Joey Sides re-directed a shot from the blue line that made it 3-0 in favor of the Oilers.

In the third, Wichita clawed back into the contest with a pair of goals. Cuddemi scored at 9:09 with a shot from the slot that beat Jake Hildebrand underneath the arm. Ewanyk cut the lead to 3-2 as he tipped home a shot from the slot that came off the stick of Travis Brown. The Thunder kept pushing and pulled Riopel with one minute to go. Tulsa held off the late charge and won the contest, 3-2.

Cuddemi becomes the first Thunder forward since 2014-15 to reach the 30-goal plateau. Ewanyk netted his first marker since February 13th.

Wichita went 1-for-4 on the power play. Tulsa was 0-for-4 on the man advantage.

The Thunder plays their final home game of the regular season on Tuesday night against Allen at 7:05 p.m.

Individual tickets for all games are on sale now. Season tickets are still available for purchase. Get your seats for just $15 per month. All it takes is a $50 deposit per seat to reserve yours today. To learn more, click here or contact a Thunder representative at the office today!

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