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Tahoe Outlasted by Wichita in Wild Game Two Loss

Saturday, February 15th
Tahoe Outlasted by Wichita in Wild Game Two Loss
Postgame recap presented by AleWorX Stateline
 
Despite a late push, the Tahoe Knight Monsters fell behind early to the Wichita Thunder and couldn’t fully battle back, losing  9-7 in one of the most thrilling games of the season. Troy Loggins notched a hat trick, and Jake Johnson, Nate Kallen, Sloan Stanick and Logan Nelson carded multi-point efforts, but Tahoe was unable to complete the comeback. 
 
The first period started with Nolan Burke sneaking a five-hole shot past Jordan Papirny, the first of 16 total goals that would be scored. Within the next three minutes, Isaac Johnson set up Troy Loggins for a five-hole goal of his own to tie the game. 
 
Wichita would continue their onslaught in the first, scoring three unanswered by Jay Dickman, Luke Grainger, and Dillon Boucher. And the buzzer sounded on a 4-1 deficit after one for Tahoe. 
 
The bleeding would continue into the second as Declan Smith made it 5-1 off a Wichita bounce past Papirny just 90 seconds in.
 
And then, things got wild.
 
Adam Pitters scored soon after to make it 5-2, and Anthony Collins sparked things with a fight against Dillon Boucher. And it looked like the tide was about to turn in favor of the Knight Monsters.  
 
But just as momentum started to swing their way, a tripping penalty proved costly as Michal Stinil extended the Thunder lead to 6-2 on the power play. Shortly after, Luke Adam cut the deficit to three and sparked a late comeback effort with a short-handed breakaway goal.
 
The comeback effort was helped by Wichita, who took two consecutive penalties to set Tahoe up with a 5-on-3. And the Knight Monsters capitalized, with two power play goals within 90 seconds of each other.
 
Sloan Stanick started the fun with a backdoor wrist shot which extended his point streak to seven games. And with a power play remaining, Troy Loggins tipped one home for his second of the game to cut the score to 6-5 entering the third.
 
But things began to fall apart in the third, as Peter Bates scored four minutes in to extend the Thunder lead back to two. And while Jett Jones struck on the power play just a minute later to make it a one-goal game again, Wichita would pull ahead and not look back.
 
Nolan Burke scored three minutes later, and Jay Dickman added an empty-netter late in the third to close down the contest. Troy Loggins would complete a hat trick with less than a second to go, but the final buzzer sounded on a 9-7 final.
 
Jordan Papirny finished the contest with 20 saves on 28 shots seen, but he was the victim of some bad bounces right on the doorstep throughout the 60 minutes.
 
While Tahoe was unable to finish the job, this was still one of the most exhilarating games of the season. Three power play goals, a shorthanded tally, a Troy Loggins hat trick, and an Anthony Collins fight, all in one game. It was just one step forward, two steps back for the entire matchup.
 

But the Knight Monsters have no time to dwell on it, as they face a quick turnaround to a 2:05 central puck drop tomorrow in the rubber match of the series. Khalin Kapoor will be on the call on FloHockey.TV and the Knight Monsters Broadcast Network. And, after every Knight Monsters home game check out a postgame party at AleWorX Stateline for wood-fired pizza, self-serve beer, and great scenery.

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