Wichita Thunder closing in on Governor’s Cup

WICHITA, Kan. – The Wichita Thunder, riding the wave of a three-game winning steak, are just one point away from clinching the number one seed in the Central Hockey League’s Berry Conference and appears to have the Bud Poile Governors’ Cup locked up as well.  The Thunder (43-16-3, 89 points) have travelled to North Richland Hills, Texas to face the third place Texas Brahmas (32-22-8, 72 points) tonight at the NYTEX Sports Centre. A win, or even an overtime loss will close out the chances for the Allen Americans and the Fort Wayne Komets as neither Allen or Fort Wayne can finish the season with more than 89 points. Wichita has gone 10-2-0 in its last 12 road games and is now 19-10-2 with only two road games left on the schedule. The Thunder all-time record for road wins is 20, which happened in 1994-95. The Thunder is the only team in the league that has more than 40 wins and has a chance to set a new franchise record with four games left. The best Thunder record all-time is 44-18-4, also in 1994-95. Wichita enters the final week of the regular season having won eight of their last 10 games as the season hits its final stretch – ending next Sunday, March 25th. Following Tuesday’s game against the Brahmas, the Thunder will return home to host the Americans on Friday night, Evansville on Saturday night and then finish the season in Allen.   Thunder fans are enjoying the teams’ most successful run since the 2005-06 season, when they finished second in the CHL’s Northwest Division with a 38-18-8 record and 84 points. Average attendance is up by almost 1,000 seats over last season and is sure to increase further in the post-season.

Just two years ago, the team sat at the bottom of the CHL’s standings with a 9-50-5 record and 23 points. Credit the turnaround to head coach, Kevin McClelland, who was introduced as the 12th Head Coach in Wichita Thunder history on April 26th, 2010. McClelland has succeeded in re-building the team in his own image as a player – tough, physical, with a lot of skill and a never back down attitude. A member of the Edmonton Oilers’ dynasty in the 1980’s that won four Stanley Cups, McClelland played in 588 NHL games where he scored 68 goals, 112 assists and  collected a staggering 1,672 penalty minutes.  Last season, he led Wichita to the playoffs for the first time since 2007-08 with a record of 34-26-6 and became just the fourth head coach in league history to guide three different teams to the post-season. Now, the question is, can McClelland lead the Thunder back to the CHL’s holy grail – a President’s Cup Championship, something that has eluded the team since they won back-to-back in 1994 and 1995. In less than a week, the team will begin preparing for their first post-season series and there’s no doubt that McClelland’s “never take your foot off the gas pedal” philosophy will take the team as far as it can go towards that goal. Contact the writer/photographer at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com