The Steelheads opened the scoring late in the first period on Wednesday, when Mitch Wahl took a feed from Jeff Baum and fired the puck off Wichita goaltender Matt Davis from the left circle for a 1-0 Idaho lead in the final five minutes of the first period.
In the middle frame, the Steelheads extended their lead by taking a two-goal lead on a goal from Nick Portz, who deflected a Jake Boltmann point shot into the net for insurance just under three minutes into the period.
After the Steelheads failed on a Nick Canade penalty shot attempt, the Thunder got on the board, as Kirby Proctor took advantage of a Steelheads turnover at 16:14 of the second period to cut Idaho’s lead in half heading into the third period.
The Idaho lead was quickly erased to start the third, when Jay Dickman scored on an odd man rush to Wichita to score his 14.e goal of the season to tie the match 2-2 just 44 seconds into the final period.
In the final stages of regulation, the Steelheads were awarded a power play, but it was the Thunder who took advantage. Nick Nardecchia pulled off a short-handed escape and defeated Ben Kraws early in the power play, giving Wichita their first lead with just 5:20 left in regulation.
The Steelheads thought they had tied the game soon after, when Robbie Holmes scored from close range on Davis on a later power play, but after initially judging the goal correctly, the officials decided to wave off the score due to a handpass in the offensive zone.
The Steelheads went back to work to find another equalizer, but couldn’t tie it again before the final buzzer, falling 3-2 to the Thunder to start their two-game set.
Idaho’s Ben Kraws stopped 19 of 22 shots he faced in the loss, while Wichita’s Matt Davis turned aside 30 of 32 shots in the loss.
BOX SCORE
ICCU THREE STARS
1) Matt Davis (WIC, 30 saves, win)
2) Mitch Wahl (IDH, 1-0-1, +1, 2 shots)
3) Kirby Proctor (WIC, 1-0-1, +2, 2 shots)
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