Troy Loggins (No. 9, left) of the Tahoe Knight Monsters tangles with Spencer Blackwell (51) of the Wichita Thunder last week during the regular season finale. The Knight Monsters and Thunder square off in a first round seven-game playoff series, beginning today.
Photo by Ron Harpin.
The Tahoe Knight Monsters open the franchise’s first postseason series this afternoon.
The Knight Monsters will be taking on the Wichita (Kansas) Thunder on the road for the first two games of the best-of-seven series.
Games 3, 4 and 5 will be at the Tahoe Blue Events Center in Stateline from April 23-26.
If necessary, games 6 and 7 will be in Wichita.
After ending the regular season dropping three in a row to the Thunder, Tahoe will have to win four games against a team its beaten once in six chances this season.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Wichita swept Tahoe in a three-game series to end the regular season. Wichita scored 15 goals in the final two games.
The Knight Monsters’ lone win against Wichita came in the first meeting of the season in February.
The Thunder were a good team on the road this season, going 20-12-4, posting a goal differential of plus-12 (134 goals for, 122 goals against).
At home, Wichita had nearly an identical record at 21-12-2, scoring 114 goals and surrendering 92 for a plus-22 margin.
Wichita went 8-6 in overtime games and 4-1 in shootouts. Playoff games will play continuous overtime until a goal is scored, eliminating the possibility of a shootout.
Tahoe lost five in a row at home to close out the regular season.
However, on the road, Tahoe has been lights out when leading late, posting a 10-0-1 record when leading after two periods.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Tahoe’s Sloan Stanick (No. 21), ECHL rookie of the year, led all rookies in goals (29), assists (50) and points (79).
His 79 points were tied for the second in the ECHL. He finished with 24 more points than the next closest rookie.
Simon Pinard finished the season as Tahoe’s leading goal scorer (33).
Wichita’s Michal Stinil holds the season’s longest points streak, recording 19 points in 14 consecutive games.
Stinil finished second in the ECHL in assists with 52 and sixth in points (77).
Wichita had three other players finish in the top 20 in points: Peter Bates (78), Jay Dickman (73) and Kobe Walker (66).
Bates led the ECHL in game-winning goals with 10.
Wichita’s biggest strength as a team has been its power play. The Thunder are sixth in the league in power play scoring percentage with 52 goals on 239 chances.
Tahoe ranks 19th in power play scoring (42 goals, 228 opportunities) of 29 teams.
On the other side of the coin, the Knight Monsters were ninth-best at killing penalties, keeping opponents off the scoreboard 82.4 percent of the time.
Wichita is 18th in the category, successfully killing penalties 80.2 percent of the time.
All road games can be watched through the ECHL’s website with a subscription purchase.
(Tahoe’s Logan Nelson tries to pass across the crease last week against the Wichita Thunder. Nelson and the Knight Monsters will hit the road for the first two games of the ECHL postseason. / Ron Harpin)