By Fred Liggett
[email protected]
A sold out crowd of 5,800 entered Cable Dahmer Arena on Saturday, Dec. 14 to see the final game of a three-game series between the Kansas City Mavericks and the Savannah Ghost Pirates. Not only were Mavericks fans in attendance but so were some familiar characters from past Star Wars movies. There was Chewbacca, Darth Vader and the always popular Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. The Mavericks annual Star Wars Game Night ended with a Mavs 3- 2 loss in overtime.
The loss to Savannah to wrap up a three-game series against the Ghost Pirates ended a six-game winning streak for the Mavericks. The Mavs took the first two games of the series on home ice by a 4-2 and a 3-1 count. The Mavericks remain in first place of the ECHL’s Mountain Division with a record of 17-6-2. Soon after the arena doors opened 1,500 fans received lightsabers and then the Mavs players hit the ice to warm up while wearing Darth Vader themed jerseys. Mavericks head coach Tad O’Had commented “The front office did a really good job” on this year’s Star Wars theme night.
In the game that followed the two teams battled through a scoreless first period. Thanks to Marcus Crawford and Luke Loheit the Mavericks took a 2-0 lead after the second period. The visitors from Savannah finally got on the board 8:44 left in the third period to cut the deficit in half at 2-1. Just over three minutes later the Ghost Pirates scored the equalizer that eventually led the game to go to an overtime session. A seven minute over time was about to be completed when the Ghost Pirates scored with 19 seconds left to play.
The Mavericks will return to work this week down in Tulsa where they hope to begin a new winning streak against the Tulsa Oilers on Friday night. The Mavs next home game is against the Oilers and is set for Saturday, Dec. 21 with a puck drop time of 6:05 p.m. Mavs fans will want to bring with them a new or gently used teddy bear as the game’s theme is the annual Teddy Bear Toss. All bears donated by being thrown on the ice after the Mavs first goal will be donated to area charities. Mavs fans are having a lot of fun thanks to these themed games and the players hope to continue to have fun thanks to another long winning streak.
