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Thunder Look to Snap Skid vs. Colorado

January 7, 2015 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


The Thunder and their red-hot power-play unit look to snap a five-game losing streak at 6:05 p.m. PST tonight against the Colorado Eagles

Arena: Budweiser Events Center

Date: Wednesday, January 7

Time: 6:05 p.m. PST

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

This Season's Record: Stockton is 1-4-0-0 against Colorado

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

Last Time vs. Colorado

Last night the Thunder got on the board first thanks to a power-play goal while up on the two-man advantage. Peter Sivak scored his 10th of the season to tie himself for the team lead in goals. Mario Larocque and Keith Seabrook assisted. Later a great entry by the Eagles resulted in a Greg Gardner goal. Darryl Bootland scored two in the second to give the Eagles the lead, which would be cut to one thanks to Adam Phillips on the power play, however Trent Daavettila scored in the empty net to give the Eagles the win.

Tonight

The Thunder's six-game road trip continues again in Loveland, Colorado against the Colorado Eagles in what will be game number four of six. The Thunder are looking to snap a skid of five-straight losses and of four-straight defeats to the Eagles this year.

Who to Watch

After skating in his debut last night, keep an eye on Klarc Wilson tonight against the Eagles. Wilson was acquired earlier that day in a trade with the Indy Fuel. He, along with goalie Cody Reichard, traveled from Indy (beating a snowstorm) to Colorado in time for morning skate.

The long travel day aside, Wilson played very well in limited time last night. He had a couple quality chances early on in the game, showcased some speed and tenacity, and finished his checks every time he had the chance. In the last minute of the game, Wilson dominated Tiegan Zahn in a fight and earned himself 15 penalty minutes.

If the rough stuff continues, expect Wilson to be front and center. His physical presence was an immediate lift to the team and fills a void that hasn't completely been filled since Mathieu Gagnon skated with the team last season.

Time to Snap the Streaks

The Thunder have lost a season long five-straight and haven'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 10 periods.

For the Thunder to snap the losing streak, the team will have to figure things out while five-on-five. Their power play has been great in the last two games, but they'll have to be better even strength in order to snap both streaks.

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.

"Ninja" Goalie Returns

Within moments of the announced trade between the Thunder and Indy Fuel yesterday, fans flocked to social media to express their feelings about goalie Cody Reichard returning to Stockton.

Reichard was with the Thunder in 2012-13, his first full season after graduating from Miami University (Ohio), recording a 13-8-5 record, a 2.64 goals-against-average and a .911 save-percentage. His rights were traded to the Florida Everblades midseason with affiliated goaltenders Olivier Roy and Tyler Bunz in stockton. That trade helped land Corey Trivino to Stockton last season.

His 27 appearances that season are still a pro high for Reichard, who has appeared in 16 games this season for the Indy Fuel. Moments after entering the Thunder dressing room for the first time in nearly two years, Reichard claimed he was very excited to be back.

While Simpson got the start last night in the loss, Coach Kromm could elect to go back to Reichard tonight in his Thunder debut in 2014-15.

Can't we all Just get Along?

The Thunder and Eagles combined for a total of 108 PIMS last night with 82 of those minutes coming in the final minute of the game. Six players were given 10-minute continuing altercation penalties including Stockton's Lukas Sutter, Mario Larocque and Klarc Wilson and Colorado's Darryl Bootland, Nathan Moon, and Sean Zimmerman.

It was a season high of 52 penalty minutes for the Thunder and a season high for the Thunder's opposition of 56 penalty minutes against Stockton. The 108 combined minutes wasn't even enough to crack the top five of the highest combined minutes in one game in the ECHL. Mario Larocque had the most minutes for the Thunder with 21 of the 52 minutes.

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