Thunder Claims Point In OT Loss to Cyclones

WICHITA, Kan. (Jan. 12) – Wichita returned to action on Friday night, falling in overtime to Cincinnati, 4-3, at INTRUST Bank Arena. 

Roman Kinal, Connor MacEachern and Jason Pineo provided the offense for the Thunder. 

After a scoreless first, the Thunder opened the scoring early in the second. Kinal went coast-to-coast and beat Olof Lindbom at 32 seconds that brought out the teddy bears. 

Cincinnati answered at 3:04 when Sahil Panwar beat Georgi Romanov for his 12th of the season. 

MacEachern re-gained the lead at 6:16 with a one-timer from the low slot that beat Lindbom to make it 2-1. 

In the third, the Cyclones recorded back-to-back power play goals to take a 3-2 advantage. Louie Caporusso tucked home a rebound at 40 seconds to tie the game at two. 

Justin Vaive pounced on a rebound at 9:13 after a Patrick Polino chance was stopped by Romanov and gave Cincinnati its first lead. 

Wichita answered quickly as Pineo intercepted a pass in the slot and fired a shot past Lindbom at 10:09 to make it 3-3. 

The two teams weren't able to end the game in regulation and headed to overtime. 

At 51 seconds, Polino caught up to a loose puck in the Thunder zone and beat Romanov for his 15th of the year and a 4-3 win. 

Wichita went 1-for-3 on the power play. Cincinnati was 2-for-5 on the man advantage. 

The Thunder are winless in their last seven games. Kinal has points in three-straight and goals in two of his last three outings. Pineo has goals in two of the last three. Peter Bates has three assists in in his last three contests. 

Wichita closes its season-series tomorrow at 7:05 against Cincinnati.

Saturday night is Stick It To Cancer Night. Join us for our annual Gold As Ice Charity Hockey Game beginning at 5:15 p.m.

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