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Game Preview: Stockton Thunder At Fresno Falcons

November 14, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


FACEOFF: 7:35 p.m. PT
SITE: Selland Arena
RADIO: 1420 KSTN
INTERNET: www.stocktonthunder.com (B2 Networks)

2008-09 HEAD TO HEAD SERIES
10/18/08 Fresno 3 at Stockton 2
11/14/08 Stockton @ Fresno
11/29/08 Stockton vs. Fresno
12/7/08 Stockton @ Fresno
12/16/08 Stockton @ Fresno
12/19/08 Stockton @ Fresno
12/20/08 Stockton @ Fresno
2/6/08 Stockton vs. Fresno
2/7/08 Stockton vs. Fresno
3/20/08 Stockton vs. Fresno

MILESTONE TRACKER
o Mike Lalonde is 12 points away from surpassing Nathan Martz as the Thunder career scoring leader
o Ryan MacMurchy is 8 games away from 100 in his professional career
o Cory Urquhart is 19 goals away from 100 in his ECHL career

TONIGHT'S MATCHUP

The Thunder faces their Pacific Division rival Fresno Falcons, the second of 10 meetings between both clubs in 2008-09 and the first at Selland Arena. The Falcons are in their first season at Selland Arena since 2003 after five seasons at Save Mart Center. Both teams last met on Oct. 18 on the ECHL's opening night, when Fresno defeated the Thunder 3-2 at Stockton Arena. The game begins a three-game in three-night spurt for the Thunder.

SEASON SERIES

10/18/08 - FRE 3 at STK 2: The Fresno Falcons scored three goals in a span of 2:42 in a second period rally, sending the Thunder to a 3-2 loss in the 2008-09 ECHL season opener before a crowd of 8,723 (largest weekend crowd in ECHL) at Stockton Arena. In his return to Stockton Arena after playing the 2007-08 season in Europe, Mike Lalonde scored the first Thunder goal of the season and rookie defenseman Robbie Bina added the first goal of his professional career, as the Thunder went 2-for-6 on the power-play. Mike Radja, in his pro debut, netted two points (1g-1a) for Fresno and scored the eventual game-winning goal with 29 seconds left in the second period.

LAST THREE THUNDER GAMES

11/12/08 - STK 2 at ONT 3 (SO): Ryan Huddy and Justin Chwedoruk each scored a goal for the Thunder, who suffered their first loss after regulation for the 2008-09 season in a 3-2 shootout defeat to the Ontario Reign before a crowd of 4,068 at Citizens Business Bank Arena on Wednesday. Ontario made team history with their first lifetime shootout win, stealing an extra point from the Thunder with a 6-on-4, extra-skater power-play goal by Dusty Collins in the final minute of regulation to force overtime. Reign goaltender Jeff Zatkoff, who was the ECHL Rookie of the Month made 36 saves for the victory while Thunder counterpart Andrew Perugini stopped 35 shots.

11/8/08 - VIC 3 at STK 1: Goaltender Todd Ford made 24 saves to help the Victoria Salmon Kings send the Thunder to a 3-1 loss before a sellout crowd of 9,737 at Stockton Arena on Saturday night. "Thunder Goes Pink III" ended with both teams splitting the two-game series and the Thunder lifetime record in the series moved to 5-1-0. The Thunder drew a combined 17,764 fans for the two games, which were played on a pink-tinted ice surface. For each night, $2 sold to each ticket benefited American Cancer Society - Stockton Field Office and the St. Joseph's Foundation - Breast Cancer Services. Ryan MacMurchy scored his second goal of the year for Stockton while Victoria countered with goal each from Olivier Filion, Curtis Billsten and Shawn Landolt.

11/7/08 - VIC 2 at STK 3 (SO): Rookie goaltender Andrew Perugini made 31 saves while Jeff Kyrzakos scored a game-winning goal in the fifth round of a shootout to cap a come-from-behind effort for the Thunder (4-4-0, 8 points), who edged the Victoria Salmon Kings in a 3-2 shootout win before a crowd of 8,027 at Stockton Arena on Friday. Playing the game in pink-accented jerseys on an identical-colored ice surface for "Thunder Goes Pink III," the Thunder improved to a lifetime record of 5-0-0 in the third year of the event and benefited from goals by Ryan Huddy and Adam Huxley in regulation. The Thunder posted their first win of the season at home.

CROWDING OUT THE ECHL

The Thunder leads the ECHL in attendance with an average of 8,829 through three home games, has 13 sellouts in the team's history and finished last year as the ECHL's attendance leader for the third consecutive season. It was the second straight year the Thunder has surpassed the mark of 230,000 fans for one season. The Thunder's yearly attendance total finished at 239,337, an average of 6,648 fans per game. The Thunder became the first team since 2004-05 to lead the ECHL in attendance for three straight seasons (Florida led the ECHL in attendance for five straight seasons). Stockton's crowd of 9,737 on Nov. 8 against Victoria was the team's first sellout of the year.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

"We have good skilled players, and I think our puck movement has been really good on special teams," Cichocki said. "That's a key."

- Head Coach Chris Cichocki on the Thunder power play and penalty kill units, The Record, 11/4/08

"I worked very hard over the summer on my skills," said Huxley, in his third season with the team. "I can still do the other things - I can still fight - but I really want to improve in other areas."

- Left winger Adam Huxley, who scored a goal in Friday's 3-2 shootout win vs. Victoria, The Record, 11/7/08

HARDCORE CORY

Forward Cory Urquhart is the Thunder scoring leader with 11 points (3g-8a) in eight games. Urquhart was runner-up for In Glas Co ECHL Player of the Week honors for the week of Oct. 20 with eight points (3g-5a) in four games. Urquhart, who was originally selected in the second round (40th overall) of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the Montreal Canadiens, has four multi-point games this season.

STEP UP TO THE MIKE

Returning to the lineup this season is left wing Mike Lalonde, who is the Thunder all-time leading goal scorer with 53 goals. Selected as the first player in Thunder history to the ECHL All-Star Game (2006), Lalonde led the ECHL with 308 shots and paced the Thunder with 29 goals as a rookie in 2005-06. Lalonde spent last season with Tilburg of the Netherlands League, guiding his team to the Dutch Cup and scoring 92 points (43g-49a) in just 34 games.

Below is a look at Lalonde's placing on the Thunder career scoring charts:

GOALS:
1. Mike Lalonde 53
2. Nathan Martz 29
Steve Slonina 29
3. Tim Verbeek 28
4. Joel Irwin 25

POINTS
1. Nathan Martz 122
2. Mike Lalonde 111
3. Joel Irwin 68
4. Stephane Goulet 54
5. Brandon Schwartz52

INSIDE THE NUMBERS - PENALTY SHOTS

Entering the 2008-09 season, the Thunder has made 1 penalty shot and missed 7 penalty shots, while opponents had made 2 penalty shots and missed 7 penalty shots. Below is a look at Thunder and opposing penalty shots for this season:

PENALTY SHOTS BY THUNDER - REGULAR SEASON 1 MADE, 0 MISSED

1. MADE - Ryan Huddy vs. Jeff Zatkoff at Ontario 11/12/08

PENALTY SHOTS VS. THUNDER - REGULAR SEASON

0 MADE, 1 MISSED

1. MISSED - Darryl Lloyd vs. Bryan Pitton at Victoria 10/26/08



ECHL Stories from November 14, 2008


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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