HOUNDS BEAT WICHITA 4-3

YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO – Chris Richards scored his 200th Central Hockey League goal to lead the SteelHounds past the Wichita Thunder 4-3 on Friday night.  In a separate transaction the Hounds announced that they had signed defenseman Kriss Grundmanis.  As per team policy terms of the deal will not be disclosed.

SteelHounds-Thunder Box Score

At 4:17 of the first period Mark Odut scored his seventh goal of the season to put Youngstown up 1-0.  History happened at 11:12 as Chris Richards scored his 19th of the year for his 200th CHL career goal to put the Hounds up 2-0.  Richards is the 14th man in league history to score 200 goals.  Wichita fought back as Travis Clayton scored at 18:15 to make it 2-1 after one period.

The Thunder continued the rally in the second period as Bruce Richardson tipped a Todd Paul shot past Andy Franck to score a power play goal at 7:48 to tie the game 2-2.  Youngstown answered as Kurtis Dulle responded with a power play goal of his own at 15:22 to give the Hounds a 3-2 lead after the second.  Wichita was 1-6 on the power play while Youngstown was 1-5. 

In the third period Nathan Schwartzbauer scored his second goal of the season at 13:48 to put Youngstown up 4-2.  At 16:31 Mike Lukajic finished the scoring with his 16th of the season to end the game 4-3.  Andy Franck made 25 saves on 28 shots to record his 18th victory of the season.  The win moves the Hounds to 30-19-4 (64 points) and keeps them in fourth place in the Northern Conference standings.  They are 13-8-3 at home this season. 

Kriss Grundmanis, 19, is the youngest player in SteelHounds history.  The native of Riga, Latvia came to North America last season as a member of the Toronto-St. Michael’s Majors of the Ontario Hockey League where he had a goal, eight assists and 80 penalty minutes in 59 games.  He started the 2007-08 season with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL compiling two points and 54 penalty minutes in 14 games.