Thursday Games: Fairbanks, Texas display more shootout magic

Fresno 3 @ Fairbanks 4 (SO) – 16-year-old Patrick Newell came up big in the last Fairbanks shootout win on Sunday against Wenatchee and four days later, he did the same thing against the Fresno Monsters on Thursday night as he again scored the shootout winner as the Ice Dogs beat the Monsters, 4-3.  Mikhail Bushinski, Sean Kalbak and Mitchell Snyder scored for the Monsters in regulation, while Garret Clemment, Duggie Lagrone and Jacob Hetz scored in regulation for Fairbanks, who are now just a point out of 1st place in the West Division. Newell’s goal in the shootout came as the last shooter as the previous combined nine shooters for both teams had missed. Boxscore

Topeka 1 @ Texas 2 (SO) – The Tornado remained unbeaten and moved into a 1st place tie with Topeka in the South thanks to their second consecutive shootout win as they edged the RoadRunners, 2-1.  Both goals in regulation for both teams came in the 2nd period and on the power play.  Texas struck first as Brandon Hawkins scored his 10th goal in his last six games to give Texas a 1-0 lead.  Topeka’s hot hand Kyle Sharkey would answer seven minutes later to tie the game at 1-1.  The rest of the game was dominated by goaltenders Mackenzie Sawyer, who made 23 saves for Topeka and Hunter Leisner, who made 22 saves for Texas.  Mitchell McPherson had the shootout winner for Texas. Boxscore

Odessa 2 @ Amarillo 5 - The Bulls fired three 2nd period goals en route to a 5-2 victory. It was Amarillo’s fifth win in a row, and it kept them alone in third place in the South Division standings. Clint Carlisle gave the Bulls a 1-0 lead early in the second period when he backhanded a puck behind Andrew Pikul. Four minutes later, Richie Marenis scored his first NAHL goal for the Bulls to make it 2-0.  After Odessa trimmed the Bulls lead to 2-1 on a goal from Ryan Doucet, TJ Sarcona scored on a screen shot for the Bulls. In the 3rd period Gage Christianson scored at the 2:32 mark to extend the lead to 4-1. Just over four minutes after that, Hampus Gustafsson scored to make it 5-1.  Odessa rounded out the scoring with a goal from Lawrence Cornellier. Boxscore

Wenatchee 5 @ Kenai River 7 – It was a wild Thursday night in Kenai River as the Brown Bears opened up leads of 6-0 and 7-1 and then withstood a furious comeback attempt by the Wild to win, 7-5.  The reigning West Division Star of the Week, Kenai’s Matt Seidel recorded a hat-trick in the win for the Brown Bears.  Conor Deal, Zac Lazzaro, Zack Zulkanycz and Dylan Meier also scored for the Brown Bears, who led 7-1 after two periods.  However, goals from Chris Kerr, Blake Roubos, Ross Luedtke and Noah Nelson in the 3rd period for the Wild made the game a lot closer than it was.  Lazzaro also had two assists for a three point night for the Wild. Boxscore