The Mavericks scored twice in the second and held on for the win, handing the Thunder their second consecutive loss.
Michal Stinil scored Wichita’s lone goal, while Ryan Finnegan and Kyle Jeffers collected the assists. Roddy Ross suffered the loss, stopping 26 shots.
Wichita came out of the gate strong, outscoring the Mavericks 14-7 in the opening frame. In his Mavericks debut, netminder Luke Pavicich kept the home team off the board for the first 20 minutes.
Early in the middle frame, Peter Bates was called for a boarding minor. Just over a minute later, Jackson Jutting ripped a wrist shot from the left spot over Ross’ glove to put the visitors ahead at 3:13.
Three minutes later, Kansas City gained a two-man lead when Nico Somerville and Ryan Olsen were awarded minor penalties. Jutting doubled the lead, burying a Justin Janicke drop pass in the left circle for his team-leading 19th goal of the season.
Kansas City continued to control the remainder of the second, scoring 14 shots.
During the third down, the Thunder turned things around, keeping the pressure on the Mavericks and outshooting them by a 12-8 margin. Pavicich’s shutout bid was broken with 2:44 left in regulation time. Stinil punched in an aerial touch from Finnegan in the left circle to make it 2-1.
Wichita pulled Ross with just over a minute left, but Marcus Crawford cooled the game with an empty-netter to make it 3-1.
The loss snapped a four-game home run streak for the Thunder. Stinil has goals in consecutive games and points in four of his last five. Finnegan has points in two straight games.
Wichita went 0-for-4 on the power play. Kansas City went 2-for-5 on the man advantage.
The Thunder stay home to begin a three-game series against Rapid City on Wednesday night.
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