PHN’s Best Shots of the Game: St. Pierre, Thunder’s Gutsy Effort Halted in OT Loss to Idaho

WICHITA, Kan. – Trailing by three goals entering the third period, Wichita (11-31-6-5) mounted a comeback to force overtime only to lose to Idaho (28-20-5-1) by the final of 5-4 on Sunday afternoon at INTRUST Bank Arena.

The story of the game, however, was the appearance of emergency back-up netminder Kevin St. Pierre, who appeared in his first pro game since 2010-11. The 41-year old came on in relief of David Shantz, who exited the game with three minutes left in the first period.

Idaho took a quick three-goal lead in just a 2:42 span. Carson McMillan, who netted a hat trick, scored 1:57into the contest to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. At 2:38Andre Bouvet-Morrissette beat Shantz to make it 2-0. McMillan added another at 3:39 that upped the lead to 3-0. Ian Lowe got the Thunder on the board after a penalty expired that made it 3-1 after 20 minutes.

Just 19 seconds into the second, Kyle Jean recorded his 10th of the year to make it 4-1.

The Thunder rallied in the final period with three unanswered goals. Christian Isackson recorded his seventh of the year on a power play at 1:18. Domenic Alberga cut the lead to one at 9:20 with his first goal in a Thunder uniform. At 15:48, Kale Kerbashian beat Brandon Komm with a wrist shot from the right circle that tied the contest at four. For the second night in a row, Wichita and Idaho headed into overtime.

In the extra session, Wichita controlled the play early and nearly ended it when a Dean Chelios wrist shot caught the iron. McMillan completed the hat trick with two minutes left that handed the Steelheads a 5-4 victory.

Wichita has played past 60 minutes in its last four games. Kale Kerbashian and Christian Isackson have goals in back-to-back contests. 10 different players recorded points in the losing effort. St. Pierre stopped 11 of 13 shots. Komm claimed the win, stopping 39 of 43 shots he faced.