For the third-straight game, Wichita (21-13-3) and Rapid City (17-15-5) battled to a 3-1 final with the Rush earning the victory behind a 42-save performance by Tim Boron. RG Flath recorded the only Thunder goal and is now three shy of 100 for his career. Wichita finishes the road trip at 2-4-0 and will head home for the first time in two weeks.
Wichita continued on its torrid pace of firing pucks on net, but found themselves trailing after 20 minutes. Kyle Peto caught a pass at the left point and let a shot go that beat Torrie Jung to make it 1-0 at the 11 minute mark. The Thunder put 15 shots on net in the first, but Boron was able to turn aside each one and gave his team the lead heading into the first intermission.
Rapid City went up 2-0 with a shorthanded goal halfway through the second. Jared Brown stole a puck at his own blue line, came down on a two-on-one break and fed it over to Wray for his 11th of the season. After a Thunder power play expired, Rapid City was unable to clear it out of their own end and Wichita made them pay. Flath caught a centering feed with his back to the net, turned around and fired a wrist shot through Boron to cut the lead to 2-1 at 13:32.
Jarrett Konkle added an insurance goal two minutes into the third period as he knocked the puck out of the air past Jung in what appeared to be touched with a stick above the cross-bar. The official ruled it good and the Rush led 3-1. Wichita continued to get pucks to the net, but Boron stood tall and won for the second-straight night by a final of 3-1.
Wichita is 3-3-0 against Rapid City this season with two more meetings down the stretch.
Wichita and Rapid City combined to go 0-for-9 on the power play with the Thunder going 0-for-3 and Rapid City went 0-for-6.
