Thunder Drops Home Opener To Kansas City

WICHITA, Kan. (Oct. 20) – Wichita opened the season on Friday night, falling 6-2 to Kansas City at INTRUST Bank Arena.

Bradley Marek led the way for the Thunder with two goals while Brayden Watts finished with two helpers.   

 The Thunder came out strong with bunch of scoring chances early in the first. At 4:25, Marek received a long-lead pass from Dominic Dockery and he fired a wrist shot over the glove of Dillon Kelly.

A few minutes later, Cole Coskey caught a pass from behind the goal line from Max Andreev. His shot hit a Thunder player near the net and got past Beck Warm to tie the game at one.

Wichita would go on the power play with a minute left and re-took the lead. Marek caught a pass from Jay Dickman with 21 seconds left and put a one-timer past Kelley for his second of the game to make it 2-1.  

Just 1:44 into the second period, Coskey netted his second of the game with another fluky bounce near the net and tied it at two.

At 16:58, Theo Calvas let a shot go that got past Warm to give the Mavericks their first lead of the game, 3-2.   

Kansas City scored early in the third on an odd-man chance from Cade Borchardt. He beat his man to the back post and put home a feed from Nolan Walker to make it 4-2.

Andreev made it 5-2 on the power play as his shot deflected off of Dockery past Warm.

Borchardt scored his second of the game on the power play with assists to Coskey and Kyle Jackson to make it 6-2.

With six seconds left, Peter Bates netted his first of the year to make it 6-3. Jason Pineo found him in front of the net and he beat Kelley over the shoulder to end the scoring.

Marek led the way for the Thunder offense with his first two goals in his first game as a pro. Watts had two helpers. Wichita was 1-for-1 on the power play.  

Wichita will travel to Kansas City for its next two games, starting tomorrow night at 6:05 p.m. at Cable Dahmer Arena.

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