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Salmon Kings level three-game series, 1-1, on three-goal rally in first period

January 8, 2011 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


VICTORIA, British Columbia - David Shantz made 25 stops and the Victoria Salmon Kings never trailed, using three unanswered goals in the first period to skate past the Stockton Thunder (13-11-6, 32 points), 4-2, before a crowd of 3,308 at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on Friday.

Victoria busted out with its rally in a span of 8:02 and Michael Wilson and Tim Kraus each recorded two assists. Anthony Aiello and Jason Pitton picked up the only Thunder goals in the first and third period, respectively.

‚¬Å“Tonight we dug ourselves a hole with early penalties and it was too costly for us, ‚¬Â said Thunder head coach Matt Thomas. ‚¬Å“We found it tough to sustain momentum and it's tough to win games on the road that way. It was a hard lesson learned. ‚¬Â

Victoria sprinted out of the opening faceoff with three unanswered goals, beginning with a Ryan MacMurchy power-play goal with 4:03 elapsed to open the scoring. After Bryan Pitton stopped a Tim Kraus one-timer at the left circle, MacMurchy tapped the rebound into a half open net at the top of the crease.

Chad Painchaud's 13th goal of the season boosted the Salmon Kings to a 2-0 edge when he converted Michael Wilson's feed from the left boards and stuffed a forehand shot past Pitton's blocker from beneath the hash marks.

Veteran Peter Vandermeer's third goal of the season put Victoria up, 3-0 with 7:55 left in the period, carrying the puck from the left boards toward the front of the goal, and sneaking a wrist shot under Pitton's glove.

Just 35 seconds later, the Thunder answered the cut the deficit to 3-1 on Aiello's fifth goal of the season, when he received Craig Valette's cross-ice pass at the left circle and sniped a wrist shot under the crossbar.

A bid later in the period to cut the deficit to one goal was turned away by Victoria goaltender David Shantz, who caught a piece of Bretton Cameron's snap shot from between the circles.

Pitton closed the door on 19 shots fired by Victoria in the second period and the Thunder dodged a 5-on-3 power-play administered by the Salmon Kings. Shantz countered with eight stops in the second period to uphold the two-goal margin.

After a series of scoring chances in the third period on Shantz, the final goal by Victoria came on a Milan Gajic shot from the right corner off a dump-in, which caught Pitton's left pad and deflected into the net for a 4-1 score at 11:06.

Jason Pitton's seventh goal of the season cut the deficit in half with two minutes remaining, capitalizing off a screen and deflecting Jim McKenzie's wrist shot from the right circle past Shantz.

Bryan Pitton took the defeat with 33 stops.

NOTES: The Thunder scratched Mark Arcobello (healthy), Daryl Marcoux (injured reserve), Jordan Foreman (injured reserve), and Tyson Sexsmith (injured reserve) ‚¬Â¦ Stockton went 0-of-2 on the power-play ‚¬Â¦ Victoria outshot the Thunder, 37-27 ‚¬Â¦ Garet Hunt and Gord Burnett each dropped the gloves in a scrap with 6:42 left in the first period ‚¬Â¦ Stockton's record in the head-to-head series moved to 4-2-0 and the Thunder dropped its first loss in five games at Victoria, dating back to December 2009.

The Thunder finishes the three-game road trip tomorrow against the Salmon Kings at 7:05 p.m. at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. The game can be heard and viewed live on the internet (pay-per-view video charge) at www.StocktonThunder.com, courtesy of AmericaOne.

A two-time recipient of the ECHL ‚¬Å“Award of Excellence, ‚¬Â Thunder was voted "Best Local Sports Team" by readers of the San Joaquin Magazine, led the ECHL in attendance for four consecutive seasons and drew over 200,000 fans for the fifth consecutive season in 2009-10. Season Tickets, mini-plans and individual tickets for 2010-11 are on sale now. For more information about tickets, merchandise, or other inquiries contact the Stockton Thunder offices at (209) 373-1500 or visit http://www.stocktonthunder.com/.

THREE STARS:

1. VIC - 19 Ryan MacMurchy

2. VIC - 9 Milan Gajic

3. VIC - 4 Michael Wilson

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