MAVERICKS WIN FIRST GAME IN TEAM HISTORY, 6-1 OVER WICHITA
Missouri scores six unanswered goals

WICHITA, Kansas – The Missouri Mavericks earned their first win in franchise history Friday night with a convincing 6-1 victory over the Wichita Thunder at Kansas Coliseum.  The Mavericks scored six unanswered goals from six different players and goaltender Doug Groenestege stopped 25 of 26 shots for his first win of the season.  Player/assistant coach Jeff Christian led all players with a goal and two assists, and Missouri killed all nine of Wichita’s power plays for the win.

Box Score

“It all starts with the goalie and Doug Groenestege was our best player tonight,” said Mavericks Head Coach Scott Hillman.  “To kill that many penalties without allowing a goal was a great accomplishment for our team.  Both of our new players (Blake Cosgrove and Brett Hammond) were also a big part of the victory.”

“We’re happy tonight to get on the board,” said Mavericks’ President and General Manager Brent Thiessen.  “The guys have worked extremely hard and Scott (Hillman) has done a great job of preparing the team.  This is great for us and great for City of Independence as we march toward opening our beautiful new building on November 13 and 14.”

Forward Mike Kneeland scored at the 4:16 mark of the first period for Wichita when he banged in a rebound off a shot by Marc Belanger, but that was all the offense the home team would score.

Missouri answered at the 9:55 mark of the first period on Andrew Davis’ second goal of the season.  It was the first of six even-strength goals for Missouri.  Less than two minutes later, Bill Vandermeer snuck in a backhand wrap around for his second goal of the season on assists from Derek Pallardy and Simon Watson.  Missouri’s 2-1 lead was the first time the team had led a game since the season opener against the Rapid City Rush; however they would not relinquish the lead this time.

Christian made it a 3-1 lead on a slap shot from the top of the left circle at the 8:17 mark for the only goal of the second period.  He took a lead pass from Nick Sirota and buried his second goal of the season.

Newly acquired forward Brett Hammond scored the first of three Mavericks’ goals in the third period on a two-on-one goal.  Carlyle Lewis came in on the right wing, and made a nice pass to Hammond who wristed the puck past Thunder goaltender Tim Boron.

Chad Hinz and Watson finished the scoring at the 15:11 and 16:51 marks of the third period respectively.  The goals marked the first for each player and the Mavericks skated away with a 6-1 win.

Missouri finished 0-3 on the power play, but killed all nine of Wichita’s power plays.