RECAP: Soaring Again
6,608 fans enjoy wire to wire victory, Thunder now 8-1-1 in last 10 home games
FINAL STATS: Box score
STOCKTON, Calif. –
AUDIO: Game Highlights – Thunder Replay
VIDEO: Highlights and postgame reaction from the locker room
The Thunder improved to 8-1-1 in the last ten home games and never trailed in the game, using goals from Max Campbell, Chris Doyle, Mike Little and Jordan Fulton for the win. Their lead for sole possession of fifth place in the Western Conference was extended to three points over Idaho.
Olivier Roy earned 1st star of the game honors with 37 saves. (photo by Sean Blair)
“I thought we did a good job to limit (Colorado’s) ability to play the transition game,” said Thunder head coach Matt Thomas. “Olivier was real good. You need to have good goaltending to play against good teams in our league. You need to support your goaltender and it fired the guys up with some big saves he had early in the game.”
The Thunder preserved a scoreless tie through the first period when Roy stopped six shots, many from quality scoring chance range. His biggest save came on a glove stop on the Eagles’ Riley Nelson, who stole an outlet pass and was denied on a quick wrist shot from between the hash marks.
Campbell finally broke through for a 1-0 Thunder lead with his sixth goal of the season with 17:08 left in the second period, converting a tape to tape, backdoor feed by Kevin Baker at the left post.
Doyle’s 16th goal of the season lifted the Thunder to a 2-0 edge with 1:17 left in the period when he took Matt Foy’s hand-off, walked out from the right circle and blasted a snap shot past Rob Nolan’s glove.
The lead was extended to 3-0 on Little’s shot from the right point which slipped through traffic, set up by Tony DeHart’s feed to the blueline with 13:40 left in the third period.
After failing to gain a power play through the first 40 minutes, the Eagles converted on back to back power play goals to get back into the game at a 3-2 deficit. Just six seconds into a Garet Hunt hooking penalty, Michael Forney set up Kevin Ulanski with a centering pass from the right corner at 7:02 to get the Eagles on the board.
Then with 8:51 left, Chad Costello converted a feed at the left circle from Aaron Schneekloth, slipping a wrist shot past Roy to cut the Thunder lead to a single goal.
Stockton answered with pressure on the Eagles net and received a monumental insurance goal from Fulton with 4:02 left in regulation when he finished a Foy set up from between the circles for his ninth goal of the season.
The Thunder had to dodge one more Colorado power play for the win but held their ground in the defensive zone and escaped a 6-on-4 skating disadvantage with Nolan pulled for an extra attacker.
Nolan took the loss in his Colorado debut with 31 saves.
NOTES: Scratched for the game were Brock Matheson (injured reserve), Sebastian Owuya (injured reserve), Gabriel Levesque (injured reserve), Jason Morgan (injured reserve) and Cameron Abney (injured, day to day) … Doyle’s second period goal was his sixth in six games … Hunt fought Colorado’s Jason Beatty in the first period and Gord Burnett in the second period … an altercation broke out at the end of the game after Joey Sides earned a five minute major and game misconduct for a slash delivered on Foy … Colorado assistant coach Greg Pankiewicz earned a game misconduct as well in the altercation … the crowd was the 12th this season of over 6,000 at Stockton Arena.
The Thunder wraps up their four game homestand tomorrow, hosting the Colorado Eagles at 4:00 p.m. at Stockton Arena. The game will be carried on radio at 1280 AM KWSX and online for viewing (pay-per-view video charge) and listening (free of charge) at www.StocktonThunder.com, courtesy of AmericaOne.
A two-time recipient of the ECHL “Award of Excellence,” Thunder was voted “Best Local Sports Team” by readers of the San Joaquin Magazine, led the ECHL in attendance for four consecutive seasons and drew over 200,000 fans for the sixth consecutive season in 2010-11. Season Tickets for 2011-12 are on sale now. For more information about tickets, merchandise, or other inquiries contact the Stockton Thunder offices at (209) 373-1500 or visit http://www.stocktonthunder.com/.
THREE STARS
1. STK – 31 Olivier Roy
2. STK – 23 Chris Doyle
3. STK – 5 Mike Little
Just saw the video highlights, was really looking forward to learning what happened between the coach’s at the end of the game. Can you give us something, thanks.