Gennaro, Watts Lead Thunder Opening Game Onslaught, 7-0
ALLEN, TX – Entering the 2021-22 season there were a lot of questions about this Wichita Thunder offense after the team lost three of their top scores from last season. If Saturday night’s score is any indication, this team is going to do just fine. The Thunder scored three power-play goals and got 30 saves from Evan Buitenhuis to lead the team to a 7-0 victory over the Allen Americans. Matteo Gennaro had five assists and Brayden Watts added a goal and three assists to lead Wichita.
Allen had two great scoring opportunities early in the contest with breakaway chances, but Buitenhuis denied both opportunities, keeping the game scoreless. This seemed to have invigorated his team, which took a 1-0 lead 8:23 into the contest. Cam Clarke fired a shot that Alan goaltender Alexis Gravel saved, but Jay Dickman put the puck back in to give his team a 1-0 lead.
It looked like Wichita would end the first intermission holding onto the one goal lead but, with 69 seconds left in the frame, Stephen Johnson added a power-play goal to put the Thunder on top by two. Watts passed puck from the point to Gennaro who was standing just above the right face-off circle. He found Johnson in front of the net, who made a perfect redirection through the legs of Gravel.
The trio would connect once again, scoring 2:20 into the second period to extend the lead to three. Wichita entered the Allen zone on a 3-on-1 break. Genaro headed toward the opposite side of the net, before firing a pass across the Johnson who blasted a one-timer by the Americans goaltender for his second goal of the game.
A little over two minutes later, the Thunder were back on the board. With Wichita back on the power-play, Dean Stewart moved the puck to Alex Peters who moved in from the right face-off circle, firing a shot that beat Gravel to the far post and the rout was on.
It had been the players who were with the Thunder last season who had dominated the scoresheet early on. All four goals came from players who were on the 2020-21 Wichita roster, as did all eight assists. However, at 13:01, a newbie broke the string, as Andrew Shewfelt scored his first professional goal. Watts earned the assist on the play, his third of the game.
Wichita carried the 5-0 lead into the third, but they were not taking their foot off the gas. At 11:35, Watts scored his first goal of the season, delivering the third power-play tally for the Thunder.
With 2:22 left in the game, Peter Crinella closed out the scoring with a shorthanded tally. Allen was on a 5-on-3 power-play, but there were just two seconds left in the Crinella penalty. Gennaro won the draw back to Peters, who saw Crinella coming out of the penalty box. The defenseman fired a perfect pass through the neutral zone to his forward, who entered the zone, fighting off a check before beating Gravel over the glove for his first goal of the year. That made it 7-0, which would be the final.
With all of that scoring, the performance of Buitenhuis was overshadowed. The Thunder goaltender stopped breakaway opportunities early in each of the first two periods, and had a number of big saves in the final frame. He finished with 30 saves to record his sixth shutout of his career.
Besides the performances by Gennaro and Watts, Johnson had two goals and an assist. Peters and Crinella each had a goal and an assist.
These two teams will square off again on Sunday afternoon. The puck is scheduled to drop it 2:05.
By Robert Pannier