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Thunder battles back to force overtime on Maylan goal, Francis leads Las Vegas with two goals

December 9, 2012 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


LAS VEGAS - Yannick Riendeau had two assists and goaltender Cody Reichard made 39 saves for the Stockton Thunder (13-5-4, 30 points), who settled for a 4-3 shootout loss to the Las Vegas Wranglers at Orleans Arena on Saturday.

Justin Maylan helped force overtime with a late third period goal, but Las Vegas held on with Mitch O'Keefe's 41 saves including four additional stops in the shootout. Chris Francis led the Las Vegas offense with a pair of goals.

The Thunder owned the shots on goal in the first period at 11-10 but trailed 1-0 after Francis completed Andrew Sarauer's feed from the left wing for a shorthanded goal at 5:28.

In the second period, Stockton responded with back to back power play goals beginning with Harrison Reed's re-direction of a feed by Garet Hunt at the front of the net with 3:38 left.

Eric Hunter then lifted Stockton to a 2-1 lead with 1:20 left in the period when he converted a feed by Mike Little at the front of the net. His backhander beat goaltender Mitch O'Keefe over the glove.

Francis' second goal of the game - a one timer at the left circle - tied the score at 2-2 on a two man advantage at 8:41 of the third period. On the subsequent power play, Scott Campbell restored the Wranglers lead at 3-2 with 9:38 elapsed on a rebound at the right post.

The Thunder knotted the score at 3-3 on their own 5-on-3 goal when Justin Maylan lofted a wrist shot to the back of the net from the right circle with 6:51 to play in regulation.

After both teams battled through a scoreless overtime, the Thunder roared early in the shootout with back to back goals by Yannick Riendeau and Toni Rajala, Las Vegas answered with goals on three of the last four shooters, capped off by Eric Lampe's goal in the sixth round.

O'Keefe saw a snap shot by Reed sail wide in the bottom of the sixth round to seal the game.

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