Thunder Open 2015 in Bakersfield

Published on January 2, 2015 under ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


The Thunder begin 2015 with a six-game road trip in four cities in nine nights, tonight when they take to Rabobank Arena in a match-up against the Bakersfield Condors at 7:00 p.m.

Arena: Rabobank Arena

Date: Friday, January 2

Time: 7:00 p.m.

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

This Season's Record: Stockton is 6-3-0-0 against Bakersfield

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

2014 in Review

The Thunder started the year doing something that nobody else had ever done before in the history of hockey, playing on a fan painted ice surface. While the game was a loss, the promotion was duplicated and imitated by teams throughout the hockey community including in the NHL.

The Thunder slowed down in February and March as they ran through an injury bug and call-ups, but at the end of March, the team was returned Andrew Clark and Joey Martin from their professional try-out contracts with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and were sent Jeremy Langlois, Marc Cantin, Andrey Pedan and Alan Quine ahead of the team's run to the playoffs. One must not forget that Bay Area hockey fans were ecstatic to see Scott Langdon make his way from South Carolina (the team he played for after the Bulls ceased operations) and was picked up by the Stockton Thunder.

In the playoffs the Thunder steamrolled the Ontario Reign in the first round. Back to back hat tricks in games two and three by Jeremy Langlois and Joey Martin helped power the Thunder offensively while Brian Foster looked unbeatable. The Thunder would sweep the Reign but would lose Pedan, Langlois and Sean Escobedo in the final three games against the Reign.

In the second round the Thunder ran into Laurent Brossoit and the upstart Condors who would eventually take the series in five. The Thunder lost both Lee Baldwin and Garet Hunt and couldn't recover from the injuries.

The 2014-15 season started with another new president as Dave Piecuch came back to the team after Brian Sandy left for the Portland Thunder to be closer to his young family, and Garet Hunt was asked to be a player and assistant coach with the team. The Thunder are celebrating the 10th season in Stockton and recently unveiled 10 Year Anniversary jerseys that became a big hit with fans of the team.

While the season is not over, the Thunder's record to end 2014 is not where the team wants to be. With 33 games played the Thunder sit on the outside looking in to the brand new playoff picture.

With 39 games left in 2015 there is still time for the Thunder to get back into that picture but the team does feel a sense of urgency. They need to win and continue winning, something that Head Coach Rich Kromm and Assistant Coach Garet Hunt are working hard to accomplish.

Last Time vs. Bakersfield

A couple of players playing against their former teams traded goals in the second with former Condor, Tyler Maxwell scoring his 10th of the season for the Thunder while former Thunder forward and current Condor Gabriel Levesque scored his first of the year.

Less than a minute after Levesque scored, Mario Larocque deposited his first in just his second game with just 1:36 to go in the second, and 23 seconds later Garet Hunt tipped a Keith Seabrook shot past Frans Tuohimaa and that put the Thunder up 3-1. Larocque scored again in the third which spelled the end for Tuohimaa but the Condors would come back to tie things up with three in the last 9:40 of the game.

In the shootout Philippe Trudeau stood tall and the Thunder scored three times to take the 5-4 shootout decision.

Tonight

The Thunder kick off the new year, and a six games in nine nights (four cities) road trip beginning in Bakersfield. The two teams met for a two game series at Rabobank Arena after the Christmas break had ended with the Thunder coming out with a split in the two games.

After tonight's game the Thunder have five game remaining against the Condors (three home, two away) in the teams 15 game season series.

Sivak Scorching the Competition

Peter Sivak has been red hot since November 20th as he's rattled off points in his last 10 games.

He missed nine games while in the AHL with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, but has 7 goals and 7 assists for 14 points in his last 10 games. That streak ties the current ECHL long with Cincinnati's Byron Froese and is tied for the fifth longest this season in the AHL.

The longest is Allen's Jack Combs with a 14-game point streak. Sivak is also tied for the longest current goals streak with goals in his last four games. The longest this season is five tied by several players.

Who to Watch

Well who else but Sivak right now for the above reasons! Sivak has 10 points in 7 games played against the Condors this season and throughout his ECHL career, Sivak tends to have plenty of success against the Condors.

Of his 150 previous ECHL games, Sivak has played a total of 25 of them against Bakersfield while with the San Francisco Bulls, Alaska Aces and Stockton Thunder. The Cheb, Czech Republic native has 36 points in those games and could use another point (or couple points) to increase his current point streak to 11 games.

Road Problems

With a big six-game road trip upcoming for the Thunder, the team should be hoping that 2015 can be more successful away from Stockton Arena.

With nearly 46% of the season gone, the Thunder do find themselves on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. Their overall 13-19-1 record needs to improve and while analyzing the record one thing is clear. The Thunder haven't fared well on the road, going 4-12-0 in 16 road games.

There's good news and bad news in the four wins. First off, three of those have come in the building the team will be playing in tonight as Stockton has come away with three wins at Rabobank Arena.

The bad news is, the old adage goes, if you win half of your road games you should be in position to make the playoffs. The Thunder have played 16 of 36 games away from home ice and will need 2015=1B$B!l=1B(Bs road schedule to treat the team better than it did in 2014.

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.

Streaks on the Line tonight

Peter Sivak is on a 10-game point streak (7G, 7A)

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