Wichita, KS (Oct. 25th) – In his Thunder debut, Jack Combs recorded the game-winner in overtime to help Wichita pull out a 4-3 win over Idaho on Saturday night at INTRUST Bank Arena.Idaho nearly came back from a three-goal deficit in the third period, but the veteran forward redirected a pass from Patrik Parkkonen to record his first of the season in dramatic fashion.
Chris Crane led the way up front with three points while Brendan Smith, Stefan Fourner, Parkkonen and Combs each collected two. Mitch Gillam was outstanding in the winning effort, stopping 52 of 55 shots he faced.
Ostap Safin put the Thunder on the board at 12:16 of the first. He crashed the net and slipped a rebound past Tomas Sholl for his second of the year to make it 1-0.
In the second, Wichita took advantage of a five-on-three power play to take a 2-0 lead. Crane fired a shot that squeaked through Sholl for his fourth of the season. His celebration didn’t last long as Keegan Kanzig got into it with Combs while Steven Iacobellis was tangled up with Nolan Gluchowski.
Crane tallied his second of the game at 3:39 of the third period to extend the lead to 3-0. He caught a cross-ice pass from Fournier and beat Sholl just under the glove. Idaho mounted its comeback just two minutes later as Zack Andrusiak recorded his first of two to cut the lead to 3-1. His second came at 17:41 when he tipped a shot from the blueline that got past Mitch Gillam to make it 3-2. Just a minute later, Brett Supinki tied the contest after he kept a dump-out attempt in the zone and fired a shot past Gillam.
In the overtime, both teams held firm through the first four minutes. Combs scored the game-winning goal at 3:43 when he followed up his pass to Parkkonen and redirected the give-and-go past Sholl.
Wichita earned its first win past regulation of the season. Interesting enough, all three overtime games the Thunder have played have come on a Friday. Crane had two goals and an assist. Fournier, Parkkonen and Smith each had two helpers. Combs had a goal and an assist.
The Thunder are off until Friday, November 1st when the team heads to Kansas City to take on the Mavericks for a pair of games.
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