WICHITA, Kan. – Carson McMillan hammered a one-time drive at 3:55 of overtime for his second hat trick of the season and the overtime winner, as the Idaho Steelheads (28-20-6) fought off a furious comeback effort from the Wichita Thunder (11-31-11) and took the second game of this back-to-back series, 5-4 at Intrust Bank Arena.
McMillan scored goals number 12, 13, and 14 of the season to lead the Idaho offense. The Steelheads’ captain has both hat tricks for Idaho this season, also netting three goals on January 27th against the Rapid City Rush.
The Steelheads needed overtime to finish the Thunder after Wichita netted three goals in the third period to force extra time, the second consecutive game that the Thunder came from behind in the third period to push the game past 60 minutes.. The Thunder got goals in the third period from Christian Isackson on the power play, Domenic Alberga, and Kale Kerbashian to overcome a 4-1 deficit. Kerbashian’s tally came with 4:12 left in regulation.
The Steelheads exploded out of the gate to start the game, scoring three goals in the first 3:39 of the first period. McMillan opened the scoring at 1:57, tapping a Jake Rutt feed through Wichita goaltender David Shantz. Just 41 seconds later, Andre Morrissette snapped a wrist shot from the high slot past Shantz to make it 2-0, his second goal in two games. McMillan netted his second goal of the game 1:01 after that on a similar high-slot wrist shot.
Former Steelhead Ian Lowe beat Idaho goaltender Branden Komm at 16:55 of the first to make it 3-1, just as an Idaho power play expired. At that moment, Shantz came out of the game with an injury. Wichita’s other goaltender, Grant Rollheiser, left Saturday night’s game injured as well, leaving Wichita with 40 year-old emergency back-up goalie Kevin St. Pierre.
Kyle Jean netted his tenth of the season 19 seconds into the second period to make it 4-1, but from that point forward the Thunder locked down defensively. The Steelheads had just 11 shots on St. Pierre in regulation, from the 16:55 mark of the first period on.
Branden Komm, making his first start since January 31st, was strong in net and stopped 39 shots to earn his second win as a Steelhead.
McMillan (3-0-3), Morrissette (1-1-2), Jake Rutt (0-2-2), Jake Fallon (0-2-2), and Joe Basaraba (0-2-2) all had multi-point games.
The Steelheads travel to Tulsa to wrap up their road trip against the Oilers. The Oilers are one point back of Idaho in the Western Conference with three games in hand. The teams square off on Tuesday at 6:05pm MT from BOK Center
With Idaho Steelheads release