Jack Combs, in his Thunder debut, recorded the game-winner in overtime to help Wichita pull out a 4-3 win over the Idaho Steelheads on Friday night at Intrust Bank Arena.
Idaho fought back from a three-goal deficit in the third period, but the veteran forward redirected a pass from Patrik Parkkonen in the overtime period to record his first of the season in dramatic fashion.
In addition to his game-winning goal, Combs added an assist. Chris Crane had two goals and an assist for the Thunder, who won their first overtime game of the season. Goalie Mitch Gillam was outstanding in the winning effort, stopping 52 of 55 shots he faced.
Ostap Safin put the Thunder on the board at 12:16 of the first. He crashed the net and slipped a rebound past Tomas Sholl for his second of the year to make it 1-0.
In the second, Wichita took advantage of a five-on-three power play to take a 2-0 lead. Crane fired a shot that squeaked through Sholl for his fourth of the season. His celebration didn't last long as Keegan Kanzig got into it with Combs while Steven Iacobellis was tangled up with Nolan Gluchowski.
Crane tallied his second of the game at 3:39 of the third period to extend the lead to 3-0. He caught a cross-ice pass from Fournier and beat Sholl just under the glove. Idaho mounted its comeback just two minutes later as Zack Andrusiak recorded his first of two to cut the lead to 3-1. His second came at 17:41 when he tipped a shot from the blueline that got past Mitch Gillam to make it 3-2. Just a minute later, Brett Supinki tied the contest after he kept a dump-out attempt in the zone and fired a shot past Gillam.
In the overtime, both teams held firm through the first four minutes. Combs scored the game-winning goal at 3:43 when he followed up his pass to Parkkonen and redirected the give-and-go past Sholl.
The Thunder are off until Friday, November 1st when the team heads to Kansas City to take on the Mavericks for a pair of games.
