Sports stats



Road Trip Rolls into Colorado

January 6, 2015 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


The Thunder are set to take on the Colorado Eagles, hoping to snap a four-game losing streak.

Arena: Budweiser Events Center

Date: Tuesday, January 6

Time: 6:05 p.m. PST

Broadcast: ECHL.TV and Spreaker beginning at 5:50 p.m. PST

This Season's Record: Stockton is 1-3-0-0 against Colorado

Follow the Thunder Facebook Page for occasional updates or follow @StocktonThunder on Twitter for the play-by-play tweeting!

Last Time vs. Colorado

After winning the first of four games, the Thunder had dropped the previous two, to the Eagles and a Sunday finale was unfortunately not going to even the series up. Darryl Bootland scored a power play goal in the first and then the Eagles rattled off a couple more goals in the second to take a 4-1 lead over the Thunder. They added three more to win the finale 7-1. James Henry was the lone goal scorer for the Thunder on the power play.

The Thunder were without Sebastian Collberg who left earlier in the series along with Ryan Constant, who was injured in the third game. Lukas Sutter came back from a minor injury in the Sunday finale but was kicked out of the game after a game misconduct penalty was given to the rookie.

Sutter ended his time in that game tying a franchise record of 34 penalty minutes in a single game, previously held by only Garet Hunt.

Tonight

The Thunder's six-game road trip continues against the Colorado Eagles in what will be game number three of six, city number three of four, and night five of nine. The Thunder are looking to snap a skid of four-straight losses and of three-straight defeats to the Eagles this year.

The Thunder will be without Shane Owen as he was traded to the Indy Fuel earlier today for goalie Cody Reichard and forward Klarc Wilson. Both Reichard and Wilson are available tonight for the Thunder.

Who to Watch

Tonight it will be the man between the pipes as you'd expect Kent Simpson gets the nod against his former team in Colorado.

Simpson won his first game back in Colorado on December 10 before falling in two contests to the Eagles. He earned a call-up to the Sound Tigers on Christmas Day and since he's returned to the Thunder, he's played two games for the Thunder, however he fell in both.

The thing to keep an eye on though is that in those two losses since he's been back, Simpson has only allowed two goals. You have to go back to the finale in the four-game series here in Colorado for the last time Simpson allowed over two goals.

Road Problems

The Thunder are hoping the road schedule in 2015 treats them better than it did in 2014. The Thunder were 4-12-0 in 16 road games played. Three of the wins were against Bakersfield and one win came against Colorado.

The team started 2015 out with a loss to the Condors at Rabobank Arena and a loss to the Ontario Reign. The Thunder are still looking for their first win of the new year and fifth road win on the season.

All-Time Watch

We're monitoring the situation between Garet Hunt, Ryan Constant and Mike Lalonde as Lalonde's all-time lead in points could be in danger of falling to one of the Thunder's star players soon.

Lalonde's 156 career points is in jeopardy as Constant pulled ahead with 151 points with the Thunder while Hunt is right behind them both with 146.

That means Constant is just 5 points back of tying the record while Hunt is 10 points back of tying the record. Both players have missed time due to injuries this season as Hunt missed 11 games while Constant was placed on Injured Reserve on December 14.

Hunt is the only one close to Lalonde's all-time record of 72 goals with his 55 markers, putting the Thunder captain 17 shy of tying the record.

"Ninja" Goalie Returns

Within moments of the announced trade between the Thunder and Indy Fuel, fans flocked to social media to express their feelings about goalie Cody Reichard returning to Stockton.

Reichart was with the Thunder in 2012-13, his first full season after graduating from Miami University (Ohio), recording a 13-8-5 record, a 2.64 goals-against-average and a .911 save-percentage. His rights were traded to the Florida Everblades midseason with affiliated goaltenders Olivier Roy and Tyler Bunz in stockton. That trade helped land Corey Trivino to Stockton last season.

His 27 appearances that season are still a pro high for Reichard, who has appeared in 16 games this season for the Indy Fuel. Moments after entering the Thunder dressing room for the first time in nearly two years, Reichard claimed he was very excited to be back.

• Discuss this story on the ECHL message board...

ECHL Stories from January 6, 2015


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.

OurSports Central