BOISE, Idaho – Ryan Faragher carried a shutout bid into the game’s final minute and made 32 saves for his third consecutive victory, as he backstopped the Idaho Steelheads (16-7-4) to a 3-1 win over the Wichita Thunder (16-6-2) on Friday night at CenturyLink Arena. The victory moved Idaho past the Thunder and into sole possession of second place in the Western Conference.
Jeremy Beaudry netted his fifth goal of the season with 23 seconds left in the third period to snap Faragher’s shutout streak, but not before the Steelheads goaltender made several scrambling saves in the third period to preserve an Idaho lead. Faragher made two saves in close on Wichita’s Ralph Cuddemi, going down to a split to cover the lower portion of the net before a third Cuddemi try was blocked away by Corbin Baldwin. Faragher stacked the pads minutes later on another sequence to deny former Steelhead Travis Ewanyk.
Faragher stopped Mark MacMillan on a penalty shot in the second period, the first penalty shot the Steelheads have faced this season, preserving a scoreless tie. Faragher went 142:31 without surrendering a goal, dating back to his win last Wednesday in Utah and including his shutout victory on home ice against the Grizzlies on Saturday.
Henrik Samuelsson netted his tenth goal of the season with 5:29 remaining to give Idaho insurance with a 3-0 lead. An errant Travis Brown pass through the middle of the Wichita zone was intercepted by AJ White, who fed Samuelsson in the high slot for a wrister past Joel Rumpel.
Idaho opened the scoring at 14:39 of the second period when Wichita’s Etienne Boutet turned the puck over in his own zone, giving the puck right to Connor Chatham and yielding a 2-on-1 chance. Chatham slid a pass through Boutet to Jefferson Dahl, who finished for his seventh goal of the season. It was Dahl’s first game since December 2nd after a five-game absence due to injury.
Just 1:27 later, Joe Faust scored his second goal of the season, and second in two games, with the help of a fortunate bounce. Faust fired a puck from the neutral zone the ricocheted off of a glass stanchion and caromed back towards the Thunder net, catching Rumpel by surprise as the puck slid into the open side.
The Steelheads killed off all six Wichita power play chances, Idaho now negating 29 of the last 31 shorthanded situations faced.
The Steelheads have won eight of their last ten games and three in a row, while the Thunder are in the midst of a season-long four-game losing streak. The win, coupled with a Colorado loss in Tulsa, moved the Steelheads to within one point of the conference lead.
Friday was Wichita’s first ever visit to CenturyLink Arena.
The Steelheads and Thunder square off again tomorrow night at CenturyLink Arena, the final game of Idaho’s home stand and the Steelheads’ eleventh game at CenturyLink Arena in the past 13 contests. Puck-drop is scheduled for 7:10pm MT, with the game available on 1350AM KTIK, Cable One, and on ECHLTV.
With Idaho Steelheads release
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