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It didn’t take long for the newest member of the Missouri Mavericks to win over the hearts and souls of the 5,760 screaming fans inside the sold-out Independence Events Center Friday night.
Jeff MacDermid scored the game-tying goal at the 15:15 mark of the third period and scored one of three shootout goals to lead the expansion Central Hockey League team to a white-knuckle 3-2 win over the Wichita Thunder.
“My first game – I guess I’ll take it,” quipped Jeff MacDermid, who the Mavericks picked up after he was released by the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs last week. “The excitement level inside this arena was incredible. Even when we were down, the fans were with us. We got a lot of energy from them, and we needed it. We’d have loved to have come out and won this game 10-0, but I think we sent them home with a smile on their faces.”
There were plenty of smiles in the Mavericks locker room as they improved to 3-6-1 and ended a five-game, 0-for-29 scoring drought during power plays on a Shaun Arvai goal that cut their deficit to 2-1 at 3:44 of the second period.
“When I scored that goal, which happened to be the first inside our new arena, it was so loud I couldn’t believe it,” said Arvai, who had no goals heading into the game. “Any one of the boys in this locker room would have loved to have scored the first goal, and I was honored to be able to do it.
“It’s been a rough start to the season – with our first nine games on the road. But now, we’re home and the great thing about this league is that we get to come right back tomorrow night and do it all over again.
“After we won in the shootout, I don’t think anyone wanted to leave the locker room. We just wanted to enjoy the moment.”
For most of three periods, it appeared the Thunder were going to claim their first win ever against Mavericks goaltender Doug Groenestege, who is 9-0 in his career and 3-0 this season against the Wichita squad.
Wichita’s Joel Hanson scored off a Glenn Detulleo assist at 18:30 of the first period to give the Thunder a 1-0 lead. It was soon 2-0 as Marc Belanger scored his fourth goal of the season off another Detulleo assist early in the second.
It didn’t take long for the newest member of the Missouri Mavericks to win over the hearts and souls of the 5,760 screaming fans inside the sold-out Independence Events Center Friday night.
Jeff MacDermid scored the game-tying goal at the 15:15 mark of the third period and scored one of three shootout goals to lead the expansion Central Hockey League team to a white-knuckle 3-2 win over the Wichita Thunder.
“My first game – I guess I’ll take it,” quipped Jeff MacDermid, who the Mavericks picked up after he was released by the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs last week. “The excitement level inside this arena was incredible. Even when we were down, the fans were with us. We got a lot of energy from them, and we needed it. We’d have loved to have come out and won this game 10-0, but I think we sent them home with a smile on their faces.”
There were plenty of smiles in the Mavericks locker room as they improved to 3-6-1 and ended a five-game, 0-for-29 scoring drought during power plays on a Shaun Arvai goal that cut their deficit to 2-1 at 3:44 of the second period.
“When I scored that goal, which happened to be the first inside our new arena, it was so loud I couldn’t believe it,” said Arvai, who had no goals heading into the game. “Any one of the boys in this locker room would have loved to have scored the first goal, and I was honored to be able to do it.
“It’s been a rough start to the season – with our first nine games on the road. But now, we’re home and the great thing about this league is that we get to come right back tomorrow night and do it all over again.
“After we won in the shootout, I don’t think anyone wanted to leave the locker room. We just wanted to enjoy the moment.”
For most of three periods, it appeared the Thunder were going to claim their first win ever against Mavericks goaltender Doug Groenestege, who is 9-0 in his career and 3-0 this season against the Wichita squad.
Wichita’s Joel Hanson scored off a Glenn Detulleo assist at 18:30 of the first period to give the Thunder a 1-0 lead. It was soon 2-0 as Marc Belanger scored his fourth goal of the season off another Detulleo assist early in the second.
“There was no sense of panic when we were down 2-0,” Groenestege said. “We were playing better hockey. We were more aggressive and they were able to score off a couple of our mistakes. All we needed was one goal to get right back in the game.”
And it came courtesy of Arvai, who scored just four seconds into the power play.
“That got the big monkey off our back with the power plays,” Mavericks coach Scott Hillman said. “We needed that. We made two big defensive mistakes and the puck wound up in the back of our net. I told the boys, we needed to get the job done on the power play, and they were able to go out and do it.”
The Mavericks defense killed a Wichita power play to open the third period and MacDermid had the fans begging for more when he knotted the score with a slick goal from in front of the Thunder net.
“Great pass from Perkins across the net, and it went right off my stick into the net,” MacDermid said. “The crowd gave us chills all night long.”
Following a scoreless overtime period, Groenestege stopped shots by the Thunder’s Brent Ottmann, Belanger and Detulleo, while Chad Hinz, MacDermid and Bill Vandemeer each scored to help the Mavericks win their first home game of the season.
“Just thinking about the game gives me chills,” said Groenestege, who stopped 25 shots, including a possible game-winner with just 48 seconds left in regulation. “None of us will ever forget this night.”
He can add general manager Brent Thiessen to that group.
“Incredible, awesome, awesome, awesome,” Thiessen said as he headed for the locker room. “Could anyone have written a better script? It was tough on the coach and the boys, but great for the fans.
“They saw us come back from a deficit, a scoreless overtime and a shootout. They pretty much saw it all in one night. And Dougie was just outstanding in the net. Way back when we all arrived in Kansas City and didn’t know what to expect, we dreamed of something like this. And now, it’s a reality. It might take a while before any of us get to sleep tonight.”
FRIDAY’S SUMMARY
MISSOURI MAVERICKS 3, WICHITA THUNDER 2 (OT)
(Mavericks win shootout 3-0)
At Independence Events Center
THUNDER 1 1 0 0 0 — 2
MAVERICKS 0 1 1 0 1 — 3
First Period—1, Wichita, Joel hanson (Glenn Detulleo), 18:30. Penalties—Carlyle Lewis, Mavericks (major, fighting), 0:03; Jordan Little, Wichita (major, fighting), 0:03; Chris McAllister, Wichita (interference), 1:11; Shaun Arvai, Mavericks (slashing), 4:58; Jim Jorgensen, Wichita (roughing), 4:58; Karl Sellan, Mavericks (diving), 8:48; Karl Sellan, Mavericks (delay of game), 11:35; Jordan Little, Wichita (delay of game), 11:35; Brandon Kaleniecki, Wichita (holding), 13:18; Jeff Christian, Mavericks (major, fighting), 14:08; Jason Woll, Wichita (major, fighting), 14:08; Troy Ofukany, Wichita (hooking), 14:36; Marc Belanger, Wichita (delay of game bench minor), 20:00.
Second Period—2, Wichita, Marc Belanger (power play) (Chris McAllister), 2:47; 3, Mavericks, Shaun Arvai (power play) (Jeff Christian), 3:06; Penalties—Carlyle Lewis, Mavericks (interference), 1:51; Jason Woll, Wichita (hooking), 3:40.
Third Period—4, Mavericks, Jeff MacDermid (Sean Perkins), 15:15. Penalties—Derek Pallardy, Mavericks (hooking), 2:42; Shaun Arvai, Mavericks (tripping), 16:46.
Overtime—No scoring. Penalties—Glenn Detulleo, Wichita (OT minor, hooking), 0:23; Chris McAllister, Wichita (OT minor, high sticking), 1:26.
Shootout—Mavericks win 3-0; Wichita: Mike Kneeland (missed); Marc Belanger (missed); Glenn Detulleo (missed); Mavericks: Chad Hinz (scored); Jeff MacDermid (scored); Bill Vandermeer (scored)
Shots on goal—Wichita 5-7-11-2–25; Mavericks 16-12-6-8–43.
Power-play opportunities—Wichita 1 of 4; Mavericks 1 of 7.
Goalies—Wichita, Scott Campbell (43 shots, 40 saves); Mavericks, Doug Groenestege 3-3-0 (25 shots, 23 saves)
Stars of the game—First: Doug Groenestege, Mavericks; Second: Scott Campbell, Wichita; Third: Jeff MacDermid, Mavericks.
Time—3:18.
Attendance—5,760.
Referee—Jon McIsaac; Linesmen—Jordan Crowell, Robert Collier.
