Sullivan Arena Swan Song for Thunder at 4:00 PST

February 8, 2015 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


With the move to the AHL coming for Stockton hockey in Fall 2015, the Thunder play their final regular season game in Anchorage looking for a big win to take back to Northern California.

Arena: Sullivan Arena

Date: Sunday, February 8

Time: 4:00 p.m. PST

Broadcast: ECHL.TV and Spreaker beginning at 3:45 p.m. PST

This Season's Record: Stockton is 2-7-1-0 vs. Alaska

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

Last Time vs. Alaska

It was another big win by the Aces as they got off to another hot start led by Brendan Connolly, who continued his blazing pace against the Thunder just 2:28 seconds into the game. With Brad Stebner in the box for an early penalty, Connolly set up Greg Wolfe for the one-timer on the far side circle which was tapped on goal by Bryan Cameron. Cameron's initial deflection was stopped but he picked his rebound off the pads of Cody Reichard and roofed it over the goalie for the early lead.

A little over two minutes later, Connolly had added one of his own from Wolfe, followed by a Colten Hayes tally and then a Chris Francis score with both Connolly and Wolfe again factoring in to the Aces fourth and final goal of the first.

The Thunder did get one back, and in fact turned a bit of momentum on their side in the later stages of the first. Both Tyler Shattock and Vinny Scarsella were really working hard on the forecheck as the team was starting to change. Scarsella himself prevented at least six clearing attempts by the Aces along the right wing boards. After a tireless effort to retrieve the puck by both men, Scarsella flipped a puck over an Aces stick to Shattock who finally had enough time to center it and find J.P. Chabot for the one timer in between two Alaska players for the first goal of the night and first goal as a member of the team by Chabot.

However the Aces would score another power play marker in the second and tack on one more to take down the Thunder 6-1. Both Connolly and Wolfe had four point nights, each with a goal and 3 assists.

Tonight

Today could very well be the final matchup between the Aces and Thunder in Anchorage.

With the AHL coming into Stockton next season, and by way the points are falling if these teams find themselves in the playoffs, it'd most likely be that both teams would be seeded three and four, meaning that both teams would have to win first round matchups in order to meet one last time in Alaska.

Obviously a lot has to happen for that to happen, but one thing is for certain, this will be the final matchup between these teams at Sullivan Arena in the regular season.

All-Time at the Sully

Sullivan Arena is certainly an interesting place, and not just because of the big ice.

Ok, so a lot of why Sullivan Arena is interesting is because of the wider Olympic Ice, and it's an ice surface the Thunder will gladly say goodbye to.

Going through the now 10 years of contests between these teams you can see a clear pattern emerge. The Aces own the Thunder on home ice.

It's not even just this year, or the past two years. It hasn't seemed to matter whether it was Coach Kromm, Coach Thomas or Coach Cichocki behind the bench. It hasn't seemed to matter if Mike Lalonde was out there scoring goals, Devan Dubnyk stopping the goals, or Garet Hunt providing the spark with his physical play. When the Thunder play Alaska in Anchorage, the team has posted a 9-28-6 regular season record in 43 games at Sullivan Arena.

Now if you want to get really crazy, the Thunder have played an additional 8 games in the Kelly Cup Playoffs and that has actually been mostly a positive thing for the Northern California side, posting a 5-3 record in three separate series against Alaska.

Want to get even crazier? The Thunder have played 2 games at Sullivan Arena in the preseason. The Thunder played in Anchorage in the 2010 preseason and won both games they played.

So a total of 53 games have ever been played between these teams in Alaska (just 51 that actually counted towards anything) and the Thunder have posted a 16-31-6 record (in the 51 games that actually matter it's a 14-31-6 record).

The Thunder have gone winless in Alaska five times (with number six looming tonight) but in those five winless series of games in Alaska the Thunder have picked up at least a point in all but one (with number two looming tonight).

The best the Thunder have ever done in Alaska is 3 wins that happened twice, once in 2007-08 and again in 2009-10, however all the wins in 2007 were OT wins. The 2008-09 season is the only year the team didn't tack one in the "L" column in their trips the the Northern Frontier as the team posted a 2-0-1 record in three contests at the Sully.

The last win for the Thunder on this big ice came last season on February 13 in the Thunder vs. Aces finale in Anchorage. In that game Joey Martin and Greg Miller had a goal and added two helpers en route to the 4-3 Thunder win. In that game the Thunder scored three of their four on the power play.

Who to Watch

We really liked the way that the line of Tyler Maxwell, Vinny Scarsella and Tyler Shattock has been going in this series and it's not just what they do in the offensive zone.

All three players have put a lot of effort into this series and you can tell by some of the plays they make. We spoke about Scarsella and Shattock earlier in the recap section about their hard forecheck, but just as good was their backcheck, as they'd get back as fast as they could to help out defensively. Scarsella in particular has used his speed to really get back quick after the Aces clear their zone or create a turnover.

Speaking of turnovers, a play that stuck out last night was one from Maxwell after he was stripped of the puck. Maxwell turned on the burners and got back to whack the puck off the stick of a would-be Aces shooter. However that was caught by another Aces player who was then looking to shoot. What did Maxwell do? Lay on the line and block it of course.

These guys are the guys to watch out for today. Shattock's physical presence and ability along the boards combined with Scarsella's breakaway speed and Maxwell's playmaking ability could lead the Thunder to one final victory over the Aces in Anchorage.

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 149.

That means Constant is just 5 points back of tying the record while Hunt is 7 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 57 markers, putting the Thunder captain 15 shy of tying the record.

Interesting Fact

Last night was the fifth ever fight between Thunder captain Garet Hunt and Aces alternate captain Justin Johnson according to HockeyFights.com. The combatants have fought three times this season and twice in the 2009-10 season and three times this year.



ECHL Stories from February 8, 2015


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