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Valentine's Day Matchup Between Thunder and Eagles

February 14, 2015 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


The Thunder look for their second-straight win over the Colorado Eagles tonight when the pair take to Stockton Arena ice at 7:30 p.m.

Arena: Stockton Arena

Date : Saturday, February 14

Time : 7:30 p.m. Doors at 6:30 p.m.

Giveaway : Oversized Posters to the first 2,000 fans

Broadcast : ECHL.TV and Spreaker beginning at 7:15 p.m.

This Year's Record : Stockton is 2-8-0-0 vs. Colorado

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

Voting Open for 2014-15 ECHL Fantasy Team

The ECHL is giving fans the opportunity to vote for players to comprise the 2014-15 Fantasy Team, of which, one player from each Member Team will be selected to wear a special ECHL Fantasy Team jersey at an upcoming home game.

The Thunder have preselected three players, Garet Hunt, Tyler Maxwell and Jack MacLellan to appear on the team's ballot while fans have the opportunity to also write-in a selection of their choice. The top vote-getter on the Thunder will wear a special fantasy team jersey on Saturday, March 14 when the Thunder play the Idaho Steelheads.

Voting is now open on ECHL.com . Fans are limited to one ballot during the voting period, which runs until 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Feb. 23. Fans can vote for up to one player on each ECHL Member Team's ballot before hitting the "Cast Vote" button at the bottom of the voting page. The results of the Fantasy Team voting will be announced the week of Feb. 23.

Last Time vs. Colorado

It was Friday the 13th and strange things occurred early in the game as the Thunder scored one of the most unique goals in team history to start the game.

A neutral-zone faceoff win for the Eagles led to an offensive rush. As they entered the Thunder's zone, Alex Mallet was called for slashing and allowed Colorado to hold the puck on a delayed penalty.

However on that delayed penalty, Colorado made an ill-advised pass across the ice that deflected off of Vitalijs Pavlovs, then off the nearside wall and traveled approximately 160 feet down the ice and into the Eagles' net.

Since no Thunder player gained control of the puck at any point on the shift, Jack MacLellan, the player that lost the initial faceoff, was credited with the goal.

The rest is, as they say, history. The Thunder scored two power-play goals late in the first to take a 3-1 lead headed to the first intermission. Then, despite a good second period from Colorado, Tyler Maxwell sent the Eagles packing as he backhanded the game-winner into the net with just over two minutes left in regulation. He picked up one last point, an assist, on a Tyler Shattock empty net goal to seal the 5-3 win over the Eagles.

The win snapped a streak of eight consecutive losses to the top team in the Pacific.

Tonight

The Thunder play a Valentine's Day matchup against the Colorado Eagles in the second game of a three-in-three. The team will look to win its second-straight game after snapping a streak of four losses in-a-row and eight defeats at the hands of the Eagles.

With Stockton moving to the AHL next year, tonight will be the second to last chance Thunder fans have to see their team faceoff against Colorado.

It's not a matchup that has favored the Thunder this season, but last night's victory is sure to give the team confidence heading into tonight's contest.

Who to Watch

There is simply no avoiding the fact that the line of Vinny Scarsella, Tyler Maxwell and Tyler Shattock is whom we should be watching tonight.

Their production as of late has been simply ridiculous and they saved perhaps their best performance for last night. They combined for 3 goals, 5 assists, 12 shots, a plus-3 rating, the game-winning goal, and the three of them took a "victory lap" so-to-speak on the empty netter as they drove the final nail into the Eagles' coffin together.

Both Shattock and Scarsella are on season-long point streaks and Maxwell has scored 4 goals in the last three games.

To say this line combination has been good is a total understatement.

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 Garet Hunt pulled within 4 points of the record with 152 while Ryan Constant sits right behind him at 151.

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 58 markers, putting the Thunder captain 14 shy of tying the record.

A Powerful Power Play

The Thunder power play has been ranked amongst the top-5 power plays in the league for the vast majority of the season. Heading into last night's contest, it was ranked fifth at just under 21% on the season. However, recently it has scored at an almost surgical rate.

Wednesday versus Bakersfield, the Thunder hit on three of their four power-play chances in a losing effort. Last night, they again buried three power-play goals on just four attempts.

This means the man-advantage for the Thunder is operating at an astonishing clip of 75% on this home stand!

Interesting Fact

Kent Simpson is the only Thunder goalie to best Colorado this season. He beat the team back on December 10, stopping 39 of 41 shots for the 4-2 win and again last night when he stopped 22 of 25 shots for the 5-3 win.



ECHL Stories from February 14, 2015


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