WICHITA, Kan. (Dec. 17) - Wichita welcomed in the Utah Grizzlies for a crucial Mountain Division match-up and fell on Tuesday night, 8-2, at INTRUST Bank Arena. With the loss, the Thunder are now tied for fourth place with the Grizzlies with 29 points.
Stefan Fournier added two goals and had a fight in the losing effort.
Utah struck twice in the first period to grab a 2-0 lead. Just 37 seconds in, Griffen Molino found Ty Lewis and he buried it for his 4th of the season. Tim McGauley redirected a pass off the rush at 8:18 to make it 2-0.
In the second, the Grizzlies added three more and took a 5-1 lead into the third. Utah scored back-to-back power play goals to take a 4-0 advantage. Taylor Richart made it 3-0 with a long blast from the blue line. At 14:57, Lewis found a rebound off the pad of Stuart Skinner and flipped a backhand past him to make it 4-0. Fournier cut the lead to 4-1 with his 9th of the season at 15:22. Molino tacked on a shorthanded tally at 17:52 to make it 5-1.
The Grizzlies found the net three more times in the third. Richart scored at 4:18 with another power play tally to make it 6-1. Fournier cut the lead to 6-2 at 14:42. Less than a minute later, Lewis scored on a breakaway and increased it to 7-2. Mitch Maxwell ended the scoring barrage at 18:09 with his first of the season.
Fournier had his second two-goal game of the season. Jason Salvaggio, Riley Weselowski, Chris Crane and Patrik Parkkonen picked up assists.
Wichita remains at home on Friday night to host the Tulsa Oilers starting at 7:05 p.m.
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