WICHITA, Kan. – With a thunder storm set to hit Wichita Saturday, the Wichita Thunder aim to bring the same intensity inside INTRUST Bank Arena.

The Past Week:

The Game:

• The Thunder played their first game in 14 days on Sunday, welcoming the Indy Fuel to town. After the team struggled with a flurry of players added to the Commissioner’s Exempt List in the two weeks prior, Wichita had only two days of practice to prepare. Goalies Evan Weninger and Billy Christopoulos battled through 42 minutes of scoreless hockey before the Fuel finally broke through. Wichita answered with two gritty goals within the next three minutes to take a 2-1 lead. The Thunder would hold on to win one of their best performances of the year.

The Pros

• Weninger has proved himself amongst the league leaders in most goaltending statistics. His 1.96 GAA and 0.940 SV% are both good for 2nd in the league.
• Matteo Gennaro is tied for 7th in the league in points with 13 (6G, 7A).

The Bad

• The Wichita powerplay went 0-for-6 on Sunday afternoon, continuing to plummet Wichita towards the bottom of the league’s powerplay numbers.

Who’s In, Who’s Out:

• Wichita signed goalie Hayden Lavigne on Wednesday. This is likely to give Weninger a night off during the three-in-three against Rapid City this weekend while Mitch Gillam remains on the Commissioner’s Exempt List. In addition to the goalie signing, Sean Allen was placed on the IR, retroactive to Monday, Jan. 25.

The Coming Week:

Rapid Fire:

• Wichita (7-2-1-0, 0.750 PCT – 2nd in West) welcomes the Rapid City Rush (5-10-0-0, 0.333 PCT – 6th in West) to INTRUST Bank Arena for the first time this season on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Rapid City currently has the worst points percentage in the league, but are joined near the bottom by Kansas City, Wheeling and Jacksonville. The game is scheduled for a 7:05pm puck drop with the Wichita Thunder pregame show presented by The Sin Bin with Matthew Harding and Matthew Will starting at 6:30pm on The Sin Bin app on Friday and Saturday nights. Sunday’s game is scheduled for a 4:05pm puck drop with 3:30pm pregame show.

Around the ECHL:

• Five games headline a busy Friday night in the ECHL with Kansas City vs. Tulsa and Allen vs. Utah being the other games in the West.
• Despite the loss Sunday, Indy continues to own the one-goal games, going 10-2-0-0 in them.