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Thunder thwarted on May's career-high four goals, natural hat trick

March 20, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


STOCKTON, Calif. - Rookie and 2009 ECHL All-Star Tom May scored a career-high four goals, including a natural hat trick in the first period to help the Utah Grizzlies defeat the Stockton Thunder (30-30-5, 65 points), 5-1, before 4,164 fans at Stockton Arena on Thursday night.

May scored the first three goals of the game in a span of 7:32, including one just seven seconds in which was a Thunder record for quickest goal scored by an opponent to begin a game. Veteran Damian Surma scored the only Thunder goal and Andy Sertich also scored for Utah in the third period.

Goaltender Robert Gherson improved to 5-2-0 by making 28 saves, helping the Grizzlies win for the fifth time in seven meetings against the Thunder this season.

May opened the scoring off the game's first faceoff, when he and Peder Skinner stole a bouncing puck at center and darted into the offensive on a 2-on-1 chance. May beat Thunder goaltender Andrew Perugini, who was pulled after giving up three goals on 11 shots, from the right wing to lift Utah to a 1-0 lead.

May's second goal of the game put Utah ahead 2-0 at 6:18 of the first when he stole Sebastien Bisaillon's rinkwide pass at the defensive blueline and scored on a breakaway, beating Perugini to the blocker side with a backhand shot.

Utah hiked its lead to 3-0 when May scored from the left wing on another 2-on-1 rush with a snap shot from the circle and Bryan Pitton was summoned in place of Perugini on the ensuing shift, who would go onto make 19 saves.

Surma cut the deficit to 3-1 for Stockton with 1:14 left when he broke his stick on a wrist shot from between the hash marks. The shot snuck through Gherson's five-hole which gave assists to Ryan MacMurchy and Mike Lalonde on the play.

After a scoreless second period, Sertich put Utah up 4-1 when he picked a loose puck out of a scramble in the goal crease and put a rebound over Pitton with 9:48 left in the game for his 11th goal of the year.

Pitton was pulled for an extra attacker with less than five minutes remaining but May sealed the game on an empty-net power-play goal with 1:10 left, burying Peder Skinner's centering feed for his fourth goal of the game.

The win gave Utah its first victory at Stockton in three tries this season.

NOTES: The Thunder scratched Marc-Andre Bernier (injured reserve), Jordan Bendfeld (injured reserve) and Garet Hunt (healthy) ... the Thunder is .040 percentage points ahead of the Phoenix RoadRunners with seven games remaining in the quest to clinch Stockton's third straight Kelly Cup Playoff berth ... the Thunder fell to 11-16-5 lifetime against Utah and went scoreless on its only power-play chance of the game.

The Thunder returns to play Saturday at home against the Bakersfield Condors, starting at 7:30 p.m. at Stockton Arena. The game is available on radio at 1420 KSTN and online for viewing (audio is free-of-charge) for a $7 charge at http://www.stocktonthunder.com/ (courtesy of B2 Networks).

The proud ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers and American Hockey League's Springfield Falcons, the Thunder was voted "Best Local Sports Team" by readers of the San Joaquin Magazine, has led the ECHL in attendance for three consecutive seasons and drew 239,337 fans to Stockton Arena in 2007-08. Season, group, individual tickets and mini plan packages are on sale now. For more information about tickets, merchandise, or other inquiries contact the Stockton Thunder offices at (209) 373-1500 or visit http://www.stocktonthunder.com/.

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