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Thunder Finish Road Trip in Utah Tonight

January 10, 2015 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


The Thunder finish a six-game road trip tonight against the Utah Grizzlies hoping to snap a seven-game losing streak

Arena: Maverik Center

Date: Saturday, January 10

Time: 6:05 p.m. PST

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

This Season's Record: Stockton is 2-1-0-0 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

Last night was some Utah retribution from a previous 6-1 win by the Thunder. The Grizzlies stormed the Thunder, led by defenseman Kevin Lind who had a hat trick. In total the Grizzlies scored 7 goals to take down the Thunder 7-2. Garet Hunt and Alex Mallet scored for the Thunder and Cody Reichard made 25 saves in his first game back for the team.

Tonight

The Thunder's six-game road trip is on it's final day with the Thunder trying to salvage a win in their final game. The trip started on January 2 in Bakersfield and will end with tonight's game in Utah. The Thunder have lost all five of the games on the road to go along with two games at home to end 2014 to go on what is now a seven-game losing streak.

Tonight's game is also the final game for the Thunder until after the CCM/ECHL All-Star break. They begin four-game homestand on January 23 meaning the team doesn't play a game for 12 days.

Who to Watch

Cody Reichard played well enough for the win last night despite allowing 7 goals. The former and now current Thunder goaltender played his first game for the team since February 8, 2013 against the Alaska Aces.

The goalie stopped 26 of 33 shots but was magical in the first period, stopping two breakaways and making a number of key glove saves. It's tough to tell if Reichard will again get the nod tonight in his second game back with the team or if Coach Kromm will turn back to Kent Simpson, who has lost in his last four starts for the Thunder.

Regardless of who is between the pipes the Thunder need their goaltenders to help them steal one tonight. If the goaltenders can stand on their heads, perhaps that's what gives the team confidence to create more offensive chances in hopes of snapping the losing skid.

Time to Snap the Streak

While the Thunder haven't snapped the losing streak the team did break the 14 periods without an even strength goal. A faceoff in the neutral zone was won by the Thunder and John Ryder threw a shot from outside of the blueline that was juggled by goalie Ryan Faragher.

Garet Hunt crashed the net and at the time tied the game at one and for the first time since the second period during the New Year's Eve game against the Ontario Reign, the Thunder scored an even strength goal.

However Hunt's even strength goal is only a moral victory as the team would fall big last night 7-2 and drop their seventh game in-a-row. The seven game losing streak matches a franchise high that has occurred now twice in Thunder history.

The first time it occurred was back in 2008 when the Thunder dropped seven-straight from February 6 to February 18 and finished the season 27-40-0-3 but made the playoffs, losing in round two.

The Thunder have had a couple other seven-game winless streaks (picking up a point in overtime or shootout losses) with the franchises longest of 15-straight winless games coming back during the first season, February 3, 2006 and spanning to February 28, 2006.

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 147.

That means Constant is just 5 points back of tying the record while Hunt is 9 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 56 markers, putting the Thunder captain 16 shy of tying the record.

Getting Back on the Scoresheet

Alex Mallet got back on the scoresheet last night with a beautifully placed shot on the far side of Faragher, blocker side to halt a stretch of five-straight Utah goals.

Mallet was acquired by the New York Islanders in exchange for Andrey Pedan earlier this season and immediately reassigned to the Thunder. He debuted against Utah back on November 28 scoring a goal and registering two helpers for his third multi-point game of the season (two previously with Kalamazoo).

He had points in the next two games for the Thunder and in total had a four-game point streak until he went pointless in his next six before he found himself again with points in three straight.

He last scored on December 26 against the Condors until he found the back of the net last night. Mallet has 2 goals and 2 assists in 2 games against the Utah Grizzlies.

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