The Arizona Sundogs and the Wichita Thunder were evenly matched throughout their contest, but Arizona made the most of its opportunities and won, 5-3.

Neither team gained more than a two-goal lead, and Brandon Coccimiglio's goal in the third period proved to be the difference maker.

The Sundogs were paced by Coccimiglio, who racked up one goal. Coccimiglio scored 7:18 into the third period to make the score 4-3 Arizona. David Rutherford assisted on the tally.

In a losing effort, Wichita was led by Matt Summers, who had two goals. Summers scored the first of his two goals at 43 seconds into the first period to make the score 1-0 Wichita. Summers' next tally made the score 3-2 Wichita with 6:25 left in the second period. RG Flath picked up the assist.

Arizona forced its penalty killing units to work especially hard during the game, picking up five minors and two majors for 30 minutes in penalty time. The total exceeded the 21.0 minutes per game the Sundogs had been spending in the box. Arizona's offense was clicking better than usual and put 46 shots on goal during the game, better than the 24.1 shots per game it averages.

Arizona also got points from Shawn Limpright, who also grabbed one goal and two assists and Paul McIlveen, who also registered one goal and two assists to lead the team in points. Others who scored for Arizona included Matt McCready and Bryan Cameron, who scored one goal each. More assists for Arizona came via Jason Morgan, Kevin Baker, and Tommy Maxwell, who contributed one each.

The Thunder excelled on the penalty kill, not giving up a single goal in four chances. By firing 27 shots on goal, Wichita exceeded the 22.3 shots it averages per game this year.

Tomas Klempa also scored for Wichita. In addition, Wichita received assists from Mike Wilson, Jarkko Leppanen, and Andrew Martens, who each chipped in one.

The Sundogs' Adam Brown stopped 24 shots out of the 27 that he faced. Taylor Nelson made 41 saves for the Thunder on 46 shots. Wichita totaled 48 minutes in penalty time with four minors and two majors and went 1-for-5 on the power play. For the Thunder, Erick Lizon was ejected from the game.