Wichita Thunder’s ECHL playoff hopes extinguished on final night of regular season
It wasn’t until the final night of the regular season, but the Wichita Thunder had their ECHL playoff hopes extinguished on Saturday.
The Thunder erased a three-goal deficit to force overtime, but ultimately lost to Allen, 5-4, in a shootout in the regular-season finale at Credit Union of Texas Event Center.
Not even the full two points would have extended the season for the Thunder, which entered Saturday on the wrong side of a tiebreaker against Utah and needing a borderline miracle from last-place Tulsa. No such help was received, as Utah easily handled Tulsa in a 5-0 victory.
The Thunder finished the 2022-23 season with a 33-32-6-1 record and 73 points, one shy of fourth-place Utah in the seven-team Mountain division standings. It is the second straight season Wichita’s minor league hockey franchise has missed out on the ECHL playoffs.
Since back-to-back championship round appearances in 2012 and 2013, the Thunder have not won a playoff series and missed its league playoffs altogether a total of seven times. Wichita manager Bruce Ramsay, who just completed the final year on his contract, has guided the franchise to a combined record of 101-90-21-3 the past three seasons.
Wichita was in prime position to return to the playoffs in early February, sitting in second place in the Mountain division standings with a 25-16-3-0 record. But a prolonged slump on the road — Wichita lost 14 of 19 games during a nearly two-month span — ultimately cost the team.
The Thunder finished the season with a 10-23-2-1 record on the road, which was the fourth-fewest road wins in the 28-team ECHL this season.
Brett Boeing inspired hope for Wichita early Saturday evening — before the puck had dropped in Utah — when Brayden Watts located him for a wrist shot he slotted in for a 1-0 lead in the game’s first four minutes.
But the Allen Americans quickly equalized, then took the lead with a second goal halfway through the first period. The Americans added two more unanswered goals in the second period to make the situation bleak for the Thunder, but they scraped back some momentum near the end of the period when Cole MacDonald found the back of the net.
Even with Utah off to an early lead, the Thunder showed resilience by rallying in the third period. Gavin Gould stripped the puck from an Allen defenseman, then scored on a wraparound to trim the deficit to 4-3 with more than 12 minutes still remaining.
But the equalizing goal didn’t come until the final minute when Ramsay pulled goalkeeper Trevor Gorsuch for an extra attacker and Jay Dickman found Peter Bates across from goal for the game-tying goal with 37 seconds left.
After neither team could find the winning goal in overtime, the contest went to a shootout. Allen earned the quick victory when it converted its first two chances, while Dickman and Watts were denied in Wichita’s first two attempts.
