Magic number stays at 10 points to clinch playoff berth

March 3, 2012 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


STOCKTON, Calif. - Ethan Cox buried two goals and goaltender James Reid earned his first professional win with 24 saves, enough to help the Alaska Aces go wire to wire and defeat the Stockton Thunder (27-24-5, 59 points), 4-2 before 4,644 fans at Stockton Arena on Friday.

The Thunder dropped their third straight defeat and saw its magic number stay at 10 to clinch a Kelly Cup Playoff berth, with division rival Bakersfield idle for Friday evening. Chris D'Alvise and Colten Hayes chipped with goals for Stockton in the second period.

"We persevered through two goal deficits tonight and that's an important thing," said Thunder head coach Matt Thomas. "We came back but didn't do enough to win a hockey game against a good team. They extended us in the defensive zone and we didn't have enough shifts where we forced them to make mistakes. Our energy was good but we didn't do enough to create second chances in the offensive zone."

The five goal outburst in the second period began at 2:17 when Wes Goldie capitalized on a deflection at the goal mouth from a Nick Mazzolini feed, putting Alaska up 1-0.

Ethan Cox then stashed a rebound from between the circles with 6:07 elapsed to hike the Aces lead to 2-0 on his 12th goal of the season.

D'Alvise answered just 36 seconds later, deflecting Max Campbell's centering pass over James Reid's glove to slice the Alaska lead in half.

Alaska retaliated on Chad Anderson's power play goal with 7:23 left in the period when he re-directed Kane Lafranchise's blueline pass over Olivier Roy's glove at the front of the net.

The Thunder - again - provided a response when Matt Foy sprung Hayes on a breakaway with 2:36 left, after a penalty to Hayes expired. Hayes beat Reid over the glove to get Stockton back to within a one goal margin.

Foy then had a chance to tie the game when he received a pass in the slot and redirecting the feed off the glove of Reid's glove late in the second period.

Cox's second goal of the game was a key insurance goal to put Alaska up 4-2 with 10:12 left in the game. He took Zach Harrison's feed, walked off the right boards and fired a wrist shot past the blocker side of Roy.

Roy took the loss in his return from the AHL with 18 saves.



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