Whalers Top The Caps 4-3
The Capitals hit the road on Thursday to begin the four day trial-by-fire that is the NA3HL tournament. Four games in as many days with the first one coming Friday afternoon against the Wisconsin Whalers. The Caps hung in there until the very end, almost completing a comeback, but ultimately fell short 4-3.
Right off the bat the Whalers applied pressure, scoring inside the first minute of the game thanks to Ryan Martin's goal at :28. Jude Hull held Wisconsin until Yu Hikosaka could tie it up at one at 3:28 of the second on a short handed score. Less than two minutes later, Ryan Martin found the net again to reclaim the lead for Wisconsin at 2-1 going into the third.
Early in the final period, Jayden Munnelly knotted things back up (assisted by Nick Rizzo at 2:24) at 2-2. Kevin Stone responded with a score of his own 31 seconds later to make it 3-2 Whalers. On a power play at 18:02, Hikosaka struck again (assisted by Griffin Leach and Nick Rizzo) and the Caps seemed to be pushing towards overtime with the score 3-3. But before they could come down from celebrating that goal, Ryan Martin completed his hat trick at 18:26, sealing the deal for the Whalers.
Topeka returns to the ice on Saturday at 1pm against the Battle Creek Revolution, Sunday at 4pm against the Michigan Mountain Cats, and finally on Monday at 8:15am against the Granite City Lumberjacks. The team returns home on Saturday, November 29th to play the Dallas Junior Stars during Family Weekend at Landon Arena. For more information on tickets, call 785-286-PUCK or visit www.topekacapitals.com.