By Fred Liggett
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Owners of the best road record during the ECHL regular season, the Kansas City Mavericks are showing to be just as good during the post-season. The Mavericks win a fourth consecutive road playoff game on Friday night with a 5-3 win over Idaho. The victory gives the Mavericks a 3-1 series lead heading into game five being played on Saturday afternoon.

The Mavericks scored just 3:43 into the first period thanks to leading scorer Patrick Curry. The goal was the only one scored in the first period and gave the Mavs a lead they would never relinquish. Two more goals came in the second period thanks to Nolan Walker’s score with 15:45 left and then Jeremy McKenna found the back of the net with 9:04 left to make it a 3-0 Mavs lead. The third period saw a total of five goals scored, two from the visiting Mavs and three from the host Steelheads. Idaho got a two-goal performance from Jordan Kawaguchi while the Mavs got goals from Jake Jaremko and Nolan Walker to make it a 5-3 final.

While the Mavericks have played four games in this Mountain Division finals series rookie forward Max Andreev has only played in three of them. Mavs head coach Tad O’ Had says of Max, “He’s tenacious.” Having Max back for game two played at home O’Had commented “really nice to have him out on the ice.” The Mavericks may take the ice only one more time in this best four out of seven series. Mavericks will take a 3-1 series lead into game five set to be played on Saturday with a 4:05 p.m. puck drop. A win, the Mavs advance to the conference finals series, a Mavs loss would mean a return home to close out the series next week.

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