MOLINE, Ill. – Miles Koules was acquired earlier this week in a trade with the team he was facing on Saturday night. He made them pay, scoring 25 seconds into overtime to help Wichita (13-33-6-6) claim a 3-2 win over Quad City (26-24-4-2) at i-Wireless Center.
Domenic Alberga led the way for the Thunder with a pair of goals while Adrien Lemay earned his first win in a Thunder uniform.
Quad City jumped out to a two-goal lead with a pair on special teams. Their first came from Vladimir Nikiforov at 2:14 for his seventh of the season. Less than two minutes later, Matt Neal intercepted a pass at his own blue line, skated down on a shorthanded breakaway and beat Lemay to make it 2-0. Alberga cut into the lead with is first of the contest at the 12-minute mark and his fifth of the season. Quad City finished the first with a two-man advantage that would carry over into the second.
In the second, Wichita killed off two five-on-three power plays in the frame and pulled even at 6:23 when Alberga put home his own rebound for his sixth of the year.
Wichita controlled much of the third period, outshooting the Mallards 11-2 to one point. Both goalies were solid and the game headed into overtime.
Koules made quick work of his former team. He caught a pass off the bench wall, came down on his off-wing and beat Musico from the left face-off dot for the game-winner.
Wichita has appeared in three-straight games past regulation and two-straight in the season-series against the Mallards. Koules has game -winners in back-to-back games, scoring the shootout winner on Friday night. Alberga had his first two-goal game of the season. Lemay stopped 29 of 31 shots in the winning effort. Musico suffers his second overtime loss, stopping 31 of 34 shots he faced.
Wichita was 0-for-2 on the man advantage. Quad City went 1-for-6 on the power play.
Wichita closes the weekend tomorrow afternoon at Evansville starting at 5:15 p.m.
With Wichita Thunder release