Stockton Thunder Game Preview

Published on January 31, 2009 under ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


TONIGHT'S MATCHUP

The Thunder faces the Phoenix RoadRunners for the fifth time this season and the final time the teams meet this season at Stockton Arena. The Thunder is 16-6-1 lifetime against Phoenix and is 2-2-0 against the RoadRunners this season. The last time the teams met, Phoenix defeated the Thunder 5-1 in a game that had 133 penalty minutes issued to both teams. The Thunder was issued 100 PIM's in the game, a new club record. The Thunder is 4-2-0 in their last six home games.

LAST THREE THUNDER GAMES

1/28/09 - STK 2 at VIC 0: Goaltender Andrew Perugini made 38 saves for the first shutout of his professional career and Geoff Paukovich and Mike Lalonde each scored a goal to lift the Stockton Thunder (19-20-2, 43 points) to a 2-0 victory over the Victoria Salmon Kings before 5,102 at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on Wednesday. The win capped a grueling schedule for the Thunder, who had just four available defensemen in the lineup, played five games in six days and went 2-3-0 in the stretch. In the process, the Thunder snapped Victoria's club-record tying 12-game winning streak at home, leaving the Salmon Kings winless on their own home ice for the first time since Nov. 22 (4-3 OT loss vs. Alaska).

1/27/09 - STK 3 at VIC 7: Wes Goldie and Scott Howes netted a pair of goals and the Victoria Salmon Kings parlayed a wire-to-wire lead, sending the Stockton Thunder (18-20-5, 41 points) to a 7-3 loss in front of 5,073 at Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on Tuesday. The Thunder suffered their second straight defeat and received a goal each from Damian Surma, Sebastien Bisaillon and Mike Lalonde. Victoria goaltender Todd Ford improved to 10-0-1 in his last 11 games with the victory in net, making 27 saves.

1/25/09 - PHX 5 at STK 1: Phoenix RoadRunners goaltender Craig Kowalski made 29 saves while P.J. Fenton chipped in with a pair of goals, sending the Stockton Thunder (17-18-5, 41 points) to a 5-1 loss before 4,849 fans at Stockton Arena on Sunday. The Thunder, who are in the midst of playing five games in six nights, ended a six-game homestand with a 4-2-0 record and were supported by a goal from Adam Huxley, who broke a 16-game goal-scoring drought. Goaltender Bryan Pitton made 33 saves in the loss while both teams combined for 133 penalty minutes. A whopping total of 100 PIM's were issued to the Thunder in a third period melee, a new single-game club record.

THUNDER'S WISH IS 'GINI'S COMMAND

Andrew Perugini is on a season-best four game winning streak in net, lifting his record to 8-6-2 as of Jan. 28. The rookie goaltender, who was assigned to the Thunder from the Springfield Falcons, garnered the first shutout of his pro career on Jan. 28 at Victoria, stopping 38 shots. In his last four games, Perugini has a .931 save percentage (122/131).

CROWDING OUT THE ECHL

The Thunder leads the ECHL in attendance with an average of 6,640 through 16 home games, has 13 sellouts in the team's franchise history and finished last year as the ECHL's attendance leader for the third consecutive season. It was the second straight year the Thunder 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.

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 65 goals and ascended to the top perch as the Thunder all-time leading scorer with 137 points, scoring the milestone point on a goal on Dec. 21 at Ontario. 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.

STREAK UPDATE: Lalonde returned to the Thunder lineup on Jan. 16 and has scored 11 points (5g-6a) in his last eight games. His four point effort (2g-2a) on Jan. 16 vs. Las Vegas tied a career-high for scoring and earned In Glas Co ECHL Player of the Week honors on Jan. 23.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING "Rohlfs and (Adam Huxley) really stepped up, and everyone played hard," Perugini said. "It was nice to get it. But you never want to get too high or get too low. Hockey is one of those games where you can be on top of the world one day and the bottom the other."

- Thunder goaltender Andrew Perugini after the Thunder beat Victoria 2-0, The Record, 1/31/08

"It was a good win and much needed," Thomas said. "We played a sloppy game on Tuesday, and I challenged the entire team to come out and play better."

- Thunder head coach Matt Thomas after the Thunder beat Victoria 2-0, The Record, 1/29/08

FACEOFF: 7:30 p.m.

RADIO: 1420 KSTN

INTERNET: www.StocktonThunder.com (B2 Networks)

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