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Game Preview: Stockton Thunder At San Francisco Bulls

March 22, 2013 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


DATE: Friday, March 22, 2013

TIME: 7:15 p.m.

SITE: Cow Palace

RADIO: 1280 AM KWSX/StocktonThunder.com (America One)

NHL AFFILIATES

Stockton Thunder: Edmonton Oilers

San Francisco Bulls: San Jose Sharks

NEXT HOME GAME

Saturday, Mar. 30 vs. Idaho Steelheads (7:30 p.m.)

RALLY TOWELS (presented by 104.1 The Hawk)

TONIGHT'S MATCHUP

The Thunder heads to the Bay Area after a four day layoff against the San Francisco Bulls in the final two of 13 meetings of the season. The Thunder is 5-5-1 against San Francisco this season. San Francisco defeated the Thunder 7-2 in the last meeting on Mar. 13 at Stockton Arena. The Thunder is assured a playoff spot and enters the week ahead of Colorado by seven points for fourth place in the Western Conference. San Francisco clinched the final available playoff berth in the Western Conference after Bakersfield lost 2-1 to Las Vegas on Tuesday.

2012-13 Head to Head Schedule: (5-5-1)

Fri. Nov. 9 Stockton 1 at San Francisco 4

Sat. Nov. 24 Stockton 3 at San Francisco 6

Thur. Dec. 13 Stockton 3 at San Francisco 4 (OT)

Mon. Dec. 17 Stockton 6 at San Francisco 4 *

Fri. Jan. 18 San Francisco 2 at Stockton 5

Sat. Jan. 19 Stockton 2 at San Francisco 4

Sun. Jan. 20 San Francisco 5 at Stockton 2

Wed. Jan 30 San Francisco 3 at Stockton 4 (SO)

Sat. Feb. 16 San Francisco 0 at Stockton 4

Sun. Feb. 17 Stockton 3 at San Francisco 1

Wed. Mar. 13 San Francisco 7 at Stockton 2

Fri. Mar. 22 at San Francisco 7:15 p.m.

Sat. Mar 23 at San Francisco 7:15 p.m.

*Game at HP Pavilion at San Jose

NOTE OF THE NIGHT

Six of the last ten Thunder wins (10-6-0 in a 16 game stretch since Feb. 15) have been decided by one goal.

LAST THREE GAMES:

STK 2 - BAK 1 (3/17/13): Captain Garet Hunt's second period finish proved to be the game-winning goal, as the Stockton Thunder (34-26-9, 77 points) held on for a 2-1 win in the season series finale against the Bakersfield Condors (21-41-5, 47 points) in front of 4,304 fans at Stockton Arena on Sunday. Hunt and forward Shawn Weller found the back of the net for the Thunder, who polished their final season series record at 8-2-1 against Bakersfield. Olivier Roy made 29 stops, while his Bakersfield counterpart Brian Stewart made 28 saves.

ONT 1 - STK 0 (3/16/13): The Stockton Thunder (33-26-9, 75 points) was shut out at home for the first time since December 2011 as Troy Redmann earned his first ECHL win in a 1-0 victory for the Ontario Reign (43-16-7, 93 points) in front of 8,155 fans at Stockton Arena on Saturday. Redmann stopped all 27 shots he faced on the night. His Thunder counterpart Olivier Roy - making his first start since returning from Oklahoma City - made 25 saves in his return to Stockton.

STK 5 - ONT 4 (SO) (3/15/13): Goaltender Matt Cooper made 26 saves in relief effort and stopped all four shots in the shootout to lift the Stockton Thunder (33-25-9, 78 points) to a resilient 5-4 victory over the Ontario Reign before 9,616 fans at Citizens Business Bank Arena. The Thunder came back from two separate two goal deficits and helped Cooper earn his first career win. He stopped Matt Register in the fourth round to seal the game. Nine different Thunder players recorded points in the game.

UPCOMING MILESTONES

- Ryan Constant is 4 points away from 100 in his Thunder career

- Shawn Weller is 10 games away from 400 in his professional career

- Gabriel Levesque is 10 games away from 100 in his Thunder career

EXTRA! REED ALL ABOUT IT

Center Harrison Reed returned to the Thunder this week from the Lake Erie Monsters and leads the club with 12 power play goals (5th, ECHL as of Thursday). Reed finished as a runner up for ECHL Player of the Week twice before his loan to Lake Erie in February and has 14 multi point games this season.

PACIFIC HEIGHTS

The Thunder has amassed a record of 23-13-6 against teams in the Pacific Division this season. Their schedule has featured an exclusive run against Pacific Division opponents since Feb. 15 and the Thunder is 10-6-0 in that 16 game span. Their next game outside of its division will be the regular season finale, Mar. 30 vs. Idaho at Stockton Arena.

THE DEFENSE DOESN'T REST

During the month of February, the Thunder defense limited opponents to three goals or less in each of the seven games featuring a win or shootout loss (Feb. 9 at Alaska - 3-2 shootout loss). The Thunder defense allowed just two goals or less in five of the previous seven games.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL(ER)

Thunder forward Shawn Weller has collected nine points in the last six games. Weller had the game opening goal on Sunday in a 2-1 win over Bakersfield. Weller, a former captain of Bakersfield and South Carolina and an ECHL All-Star in 2010, was acquired by the Thunder from South Carolina on Jan. 25 in exchange for defenseman Cameron Brodie and future considerations.

OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN

Garet Hunt was named the sixth captain in Thunder history on Oct. 12, taking the "C" for the first time in his career for full-time duty. Hunt served as an alternate captain for the Thunder last season and has now helped guide the team to the playoffs for five straight seasons since his 2008-09 rookie campaign. Hunt is the Thunder all-time leader with 311 games played.

2012-13 MEDIA GUIDE AVAILABLE ONLINE

The Stockton Thunder 2012-13 media guide is available online in .pdf form at http://www.stocktonthunder.com/team/history/. The guide can be accessed by following the link and clicking "2012-2013 Media Guide."

PLAYOFF NOTES

ECHL WESTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFF STANDINGS

(Top-8 in the conference qualify for Kelly Cup playoffs)

Rank Western Conference GP W L OTL SOL PTS PCT GF GA STK P10 SO

1 x * - Alaska Aces 68 46 15 3 4 99 0.728 216 163 0-3-1-0 6-3-1-0 4-4

2 y * - Ontario Reign 67 44 16 3 4 95 0.709 235 182 2-0-0-1 6-2-0-2 6-4

3 x Idaho Steelheads 67 42 18 1 6 91 0.679 251 189 0-1-0-0 7-3-0-0 3-6

4 x Stockton Thunder 69 34 26 5 4 77 0.558 213 212 1-0-0-0 6-4-0-0 3-4

5 x Colorado Eagles 67 33 28 3 3 72 0.537 223 204 1-0-0-0 6-3-1-0 3-3

6 x Las Vegas Wranglers 67 33 29 2 3 71 0.530 181 181 2-0-0-0 4-6-0-0 5-3

7 x Utah Grizzlies 67 26 29 4 8 64 0.478 199 261 3-0-1-3 3-2-1-4 5-8

8 x San Francisco Bulls 66 24 35 1 6 55 0.417 183 237 0-1-0-0 4-6-0-0 4-6

9 Bakersfield Condors 68 21 42 2 3 47 0.346 163 232 0-2-0-0 3-7-0-0 8-3

* Division leader

x Teams who have clinched a playoff spot.

y Teams who have clinched the division title

z Team who has clinched the conference title

2013 Playoff March Notes -

- The Thunder has clinched a playoff berth for the seventh straight season.

- Stockton has regular season games remaining against the following teams:

- San Francisco (2)

- Idaho (1)

- In the Western Conference, postseason berths will be awarded to the first-place team in each division and the next six teams in the conference, based on points . The division winners will be seeded first and second and will play the eighth-place finisher and the seventh-place finisher, respectively, while the third-place finisher will meet the sixth-place finisher and the fourth-place finisher will meet the fifth-place finisher. The conference semifinals will have the winner of the first-place and eighth-place matchup playing the winner of the fourth-place and fifth-place game while the winner of the second-place and seventh-place game will face the winner of the third-place and sixth-place matchup.

- IF THE KELLY CUP PLAYOFFS BEGAN TODAY: the Thunder would face the Colorado Eagles in the Western Conference Quarterfinal.

- The Thunder has a magic number of six points to clinch (outright) the fourth seed and home ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.

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