Sports stats



Thunder Back in Bakersfield

December 27, 2014 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


The Thunder's final road game in 2014 gets underway tonight at 7:00 p.m. when the Thunder battle the Bakersfield Condors at Rabobank Arena

Arena: Rabobank Arena

Date: Saturday, December 27

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Broadcast: ECHL.TV and Spreaker beginning at 6:45 p.m. PST

This Year's Record: Stockton is 5-3-0-0 against Bakersfield

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

WE PAINT the Ice Night Coming Soon!

The Thunder will invite fans to paint the Stockton Arena ice surface after the game on Tuesday, December 30. Get your tickets now and get to the Arena early to sign up to paint! We will allow one parent or guardian out on the ice with their children. Adults won't be allowed to paint the ice on their own so if you want to try and sign up to paint, find a niece, nephew, grandkid, neighbor, etc... and bring them to the game! Need tickets? Check out our holiday plans, including a specific Paint the Ice plan featuring two Upper Premium tickets and a replica jersey or bobblehead for $39!

Last Time vs. Bakersfield

Last night got off to a great start for the Thunder as J.T. Barnett pushed the puck up the near side boards where it was picked up by Lukas Sutter. Sutter powered his way past Ryan Watson and zipped a pass across the goal front to Alex Mallet who deposited the puck past Frans Tuohimaa to put the Thunder up just 2:22 into the game.

However, just 33 seconds later Sebastian Sylvestre cut through the neutral zone, and behind the Thunder defense and attempted the deke around Shane Owen. Owen got a piece of the puck with his pad but couldn't corral the rebound and Jonathan Lessard crashed the net and put the rebound home to tie the game up near immediately.

With James Henry in the box the Condors would take the lead on a power-play goal from Nick MacNeil who put back a Josh Currie shot and gave the Condors the lead. In the second Jordan Kremyr put the Condors up by two. Tuohimaa shut the door the rest of the way as he ended the game with 25 saves on 26 shots including a couple beautiful saves that kept the Thunder at bay, and give his team the 3-1 win.

Tonight

The Thunder look to snap a streak of two losses to their rivals to the south as the Condors have rattled off two-straight wins over the Thunder dating back to November 26.

Overall the Thunder have taken five games against the Condors this season including two wins here at Rabobank Arena.

Who to Watch

Alex Mallet is beginning to heat up again as the man who was acquired by the New York Islanders in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks.

Mallet has points in his last three games. The Montreal, Quebec native has 2 goals and an assist in that span.

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 145.

That means Constant is just 5 points back of tying the record while Hunt is 11 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 54 markers, putting the Thunder captain 18 shy of tying the record.

Maintaining Second Period Leads

The Thunder have been great this season when playing with the lead heading into the third period. In fact...they've been perfect, winning all eight games that they've ever maintained a lead going into the final twenty minutes. Bakersfield has been the exact same way as the Thunder as they have been perfect in 11 tries when entering the third with a lead. The Thunder have not been able to win a game when trailing after two, losing in 16 games, including last night, when trailing after the second while Bako has mounted three third period comebacks in 12 tries.

Larocque's Debut

Mario Larocque made his debut for the Thunder last night after signing a contract with the Thunder. The defenseman spent time on a line pairing with Keith Seabrook and as the game wore on, Larocque began to play in the power play and penalty kill.

Streaks on the Line tonight

Alex Mallet is on a three-game point streak (2G, 1A).

J.T. Barnett has points in his last two games (1G, 1A)

Interesting Note

Shane Owen is 3-3-0 against the Condors this year and has a 2.51 goals-against-average and a .919 save-percentage

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

ECHL Stories from December 27, 2014


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