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Thunder Continue Road Trip in Utah

January 9, 2015 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


The Thunder will play game five of six at the Maverik Center tonight at 6:05 p.m. PST against the Utah Grizzlies

Arena: Maverik Center

Date: Friday, January 9

Time: 6:05 p.m. PST

Broadcast: ECHL.TV and Spreaker beginning at 5:50 p.m. PST

This Season's Record: Stockton is 2-0-0-0 against Utah

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

Last Time vs. Utah

The last time these teams met was back at Stockton Arena on Black Friday. Jack MacLellan scored in the final minute of the first period to put the Thunder up by one on the power play but Vinny Scarsella answered with a power-play marker of his own. Then the Thunder torched Joe Howe for three more before Howe was pulled for Ryan Faragher. It didn't help much as the Thunder scored two more to win 6-1. Jack MacLellan, James Henry and Alex Mallet all had three points.

Tonight

The Thunder's six-game road trip continues again in the team's final destination, Utah, tonight at 6:05 p.m. PST. The Thunder are still searching for their first win in 2015 and hoping to snap a streak of six consecutive losses. The good news for the team is that the Thunder are undefeated against Utah, but have played both games in Stockton.

Who to Watch

Ryan Hayes is the man to watch against the Utah Grizzlies tonight. While he's had a frustrating year by his standards, Hayes is one of six players this year to break the 20 point plateau with his 22 points.

The Syracuse, NY native has scored 10 of his 22 points, tying him for second on the team with Peter Sivak in goals behind only Tyler Maxwell who had two goals in his last game.

Not only is Hayes beginning to heat up with a three-game point streak (1 goal and 2 assists) and traditionally speaking, the Grizzlies are a team Hayes has enjoyed great success against. Prior to the start of this year, Hayes had 13 points (seven of which were goals) in 8 games played against Utah.

This year in 2 games against Utah, Hayes has been held off the scoresheet (well except in penalty minutes as Hayes has 16) against Utah, bringing his point total to 13 points in 10 career games against Utah. That could change tonight with the forward starting to heat up.

Time to Snap the Streaks

The Thunder have lost a season long six-straight, including four in 2015, one away from tying a franchise record of seven-straight defeats that has occurred twice in team history, most recently in November 2009.

Not only that, the team hasn't scored an even strength goal since Ryan Hayes scored in the second period on New Year's Eve. The Thunder haven't scored even strength in 13 periods.

Going back to the second game of this road trip in Ontario, the Thunder have scored a total of five power-play goals and one shorthanded marker.

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 146.

That means Constant is just 5 points back of tying the record while Hunt is 10 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 55 markers, putting the Thunder captain 17 shy of tying the record.

About the Grizzlies

The Utah Grizzlies picked up points in three straight games before falling in their last game in Alaska and again to Alaska in their first home game of 2015 on Wednesday.

That means that one of these teams will continue a losing streak tonight. As far as the standings go, these are the two bottom teams in the Pacific Division trying to string some wins together in order to get back into the playoff picture. The Grizzlies do have four games in hand over the Thunder as Stockton has played the most games in the Pacific as of right now.

The Grizzlies have used a host of goaltenders this season, starting with Etienne Marcoux and Ryan Faragher, and along the way seeing Joe Howe, Brandon Maxwell, Igor Bobkov and Daniel Spence in the crease. The Thunder have seen Joe Howe twice this year but won't see him again in Utah as he was traded last month to Reading. Currently Ryan Faragher is down with the team with Daniel Spence backing up for Utah.

Faragher has played in a team leading 14 games this year and came in to spell Joe Howe in the last game between these teams after Howe allowed 4 goals. The Thunder scored twice on Faragher in that game.

Streaks on the Line

Peter Sivak is on a three-game point streak (1G, 3A)

Ryan Hayes is on a three-game point streak (2G, 1A)

Adam Phillips is on a two-game point streak (1G, 1A)

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