Wichita holds on to lead, defeats Brahmas 6-5

Thunder lock up Governor's Cup, Texas loses 4th straight game

It was a rough night for the Texas Brahmas, to say the least.

The Brahmas capitalized on their first power play of the night and grabbed the early lead at the 1:47 mark of the first period when Brendon Hodge cleaned up a rebound in front of the Thunder net for his 13th goal of the season. T.J. Fox and Adam Hogg assisted.

The rest of the first period, however, belonged to Wichita. A boarding call against Dan Nicholls led to the equalizer by R.G. Flath. Jarred Mohr sent a shot on net off the face-off and Flath beat Ken Carroll with the rebound just four seconds into the man-advantage .

27 seconds later Chris Chappell beat Carroll off a set up by Mohr and Matt Summers. Chappell made it a 3-1 game at the 17:31 mark with the assist from Matt Robinson.

After allowing three goals on five shots, Carroll was given the hook and Mark Guggenberger finished out the game.

The Brahmas had a 10-5 shot advantage in the opening period but went into the locker room down 3-1.

Texas turned the tables in the middle frame, outscoring Wichita 3-2 in the period.

Adam Hogg scored twice and Sy Nutkevitch tallied his second goal as a member of the Brahmas while R.G. Flath added two for the Thunder. Flath's hat trick goal came at the 16:17 mark when Daniel Tetrault fired a shot from the blue line and Flath put home the rebound to make it a 5-4 contest heading into the third period.

Wichita had the 13-6 shot advantage in the second 20.

6:16 into the third period, Bourret put home a rebound during a scramble in front of the Brahmas net to make it 6-4.

The Brahmas had a tremendous opportunity when Bourret (Roughing) and Kevin Seibel (Clipping) were sent to the sin bin at the 8:17 mark but Wichita managed to kill the resulting five-on-three power play. Suffice it to say, Adam Russo made some spectacular saves and kept the Brahmas from pulling closer.

With 35 seconds remaining in regulation, Guggenberger was pulled in favor of the extra attacker and the Brahmas pulled within one when Dan Nicholls scored with a little help from Nutkevitch and T.J Fox to make it 6-5.

The Thunder held on for the remainder of the contest and earned its 44th win of the season as well as the Governor's Cup. Wichita also clinched the Berry Conference title and home-ice-advantage throughout the playoffs.

Ken Carroll stopped 2 of 5 shots faced in 17:31 minutes played. Mark Guggenberger made 17 saves on 20 shots faced and takes the loss. His record goes to 21-9-3-3 with a 2.12 GAA (1st in the league) and a .917 Save Percentage (8th in the league).

The Brahmas were assessed 8 minutes on 4 infractions and went for 2 for 8 on the power play.

Blind Mouse: Zac Blazik
Linesman 1: Bill McGoldrick
Linesman 2: T,J. Nua

1st Star: R.G. Flath (WIC) (1 G, 1 A)
2nd Star: Adam Hogg (2 G, 1 A)
3rd Star: Sy Nutkevitch (1 G, 1 A)

You can view Pointstreak's Box Score here and their GameLive broadcast here. You can view my photos from the game (as they are edited and added) here.

The Brahmas will regroup and travel to Tulsa to take on the Oilers on Friday night with the opening face off set for 7:35 pm CST.

Photo Credit: Robert Keith