By Matthew Harding
WICHITA, Kan. - The curtain was raised on the 2023-24 Wichita Thunder season Friday night at INTRUST Bank Arena. But on Friday night, the Kansas City Mavericks were the stars of the show.
But, it wasn't all bad. At least at the start.
Thunder forward Bradley Marek, sent down from the AHL's San Jose Barracuda prior to the start of training camp, opened to rave reviews, scoring a pair of goals in the first period. His first professional goal came 4:25 into the contest, when he caught a stretch pass from Dominic Dockery, got behind the Mavericks defense to beat netminder Dillon Kelley to give Wichita a 1-0 lead.
Just 4:37 later, Cole Coskey, who was a thorn in Wichita's side last season, netted his first of two on the night to even the scoring at one goal apiece. Mavericks defenseman Kyle Jackson won a battle in the corner, and fed it to Max Andreev, who fired a shot on net and Coskey potted the rebound past Thunder netminder Beck Warm.
The score stayed tied at 1-1 through the remaining minutes of the first period, until Andreev was called for interference. Within seconds of the power play beginning, Marek received a between-the-legs pass from Jay Dickman and once again beat Kelley in the upper corner to give Wichita a 2-1 lead through 20 minutes.
"He had a great first professional game," said Thunder head coach Bruce Ramsay. "He's a strong centerman, won his fair share of faceoffs, so that's great for him. But obviously, it was a disappointing night with the outcome and some of the luck we had.
The luck turned south quickly in the second period. Wichita was forced to kill off two powerplays during the period and had a third carry-over into the final period. While the Thunder were able to hold Kansas City off the scoreboard on the man advantage, they could not at even strength. Just over 100 seconds into the period, Coskey fired a shot that dribbled between Warm's pads and into the net to level things at 2-2.
From there, it was all Kansas City.
A seeing-eye shot from Theo Calvas played pinball on the way into Warm, ultimately getting by him, to give KC a 3-2 lead in the late stages of the period.
Kansas City would pull away in the third as Wichita's frustration continued to mount. A pair of power-play goals and three overall in the period, would help the Mavs cap off a 6-3 win, and take game one of this 15-game season series.
Clearly, the puck luck wasn't on Wichita's side tonight, with two pucks careening in off bodies, and a third off a skate.
"I've been in this game a long time and we had some bad bounces tonight, to put it politely," Ramsay said. "I still think we can do things a lot better. We were okay; there were some positives, but a lot of things we can improve on."
Beck Warm suffered the loss, allowing six goals on 40 shots faces. Dillon Kelley claims the win, allowing just three goals on 32 shots faced.
Thunderbolts
- Brayden Watts and Jay Dickman each recorded two assists, while Jason Pineo and Dockery each recorded one
- Peter Bates lit the lamp with roughly nine seconds left in the game.
- Michal Stinil was held off the scoresheet but did register the season's first fight, taking on Kansas City's Justin Nachbaur late in the third period
Up Next
The Thunder will hit the road for the next couple of games, taking on the Kansas City Mavericks to finish a season-opening three-game set against the team up Interstate 35 tomorrow night and again Tuesday night. Faceoff for both games is set for 7:05 pm at Cable Dahmer Arena.