6,608 fans enjoy wire to wire victory

Published on February 19, 2012 under ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


STOCKTON, Calif. - Goaltender Olivier Roy stopped 35 shots and the Stockton Thunder (25-21-5, 55 points) used three unanswered goals to topple the Colorado Eagles in a 4-2 victory, before a crowd of 6,608 at Stockton Arena on Saturday.

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.

"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 Jordan 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.

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