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Weekly Weather Report: the Weekly News and Notes of the Stockton Thunder

December 8, 2014 - ECHL (ECHL)
Stockton Thunder News Release


After the Thunder had split the previous week with a loss to Bakersfield and a rebound victory over the Grizzlies, the Stockton Thunder hosted the Alaska Aces for a three-in-three starting on Thursday. The team celebrated Thor's Birthday on Thursday and tried giving the mascot a win over the Aces. It started out with the Thunder captain returning to the ice after missing 11 games, and in the first second he and Alaska's Justin Johnson gave their squads some energy with a fight off the opening draw. While nobody scored initially off of the fight's momentum, it would be the Aces who would grab a 1-0 lead in the first before the Thunder scored the next two thanks to J.T. Barnett and Ryan Constant, however a goal with just 19 seconds remaining in the second for the Aces tied the game at two. Jack MacLellan scored 1:42 into the third and the Thunder held on for nearly the rest of the period. With the Aces goalie pulled the team scored to tie the game thanks to rookie phenom Olivier Archambault with 46 seconds left in the game. In overtime it'd be the Aces spoiling Thor's birthday present as Brad Cole wristed one past Kent Simpson with 42 seconds left in the extra session to give Alaska the 4-3 win.

During Friday's game the Thunder celebrated its 10th season by surprising fans with their new 10th Anniversary Jersey worn for the first time. Thunder alum Daryl Marcoux returned to drop the ceremonial first puck and was hoping for the Thunder to break through and beat the Aces. It'd be Stockton who would score first thanks to a Ryan Hayes power-play goal but just 1:24 later, Chris Francis tied the game up with a power-play goal of his own. Garet Hunt got his first regular season goal since February 1, 2014 and his first point back from injury when he followed up a Lukas Sutter rebound to make the score 2-1, but again the Aces would respond. In the final 1:19 of the first, Alaska scored twice with Olivier Archambault's 12th of the season and Chris Francis scored his second of the night shorthanded to give Alaska the first period lead. The Aces would increase the lead in the second which would spell the end of Shane Owen's start and give Kent Simpson an opportunity to play the Aces again. Stockton would try the comeback in the third but goals from Peter Sivak and Tyler Shattock would not be enough as the team would fall to the Aces 6-4.

The Thunder had one more opportunity to beat the Aces, something that hadn't been done since October 25 of this season. Kent Simpson got the nod in goal and right off the bat, received some offensive support as Austin Levi scored on the power play to give the Thunder the early lead, but moments later the Aces would get a goal of their own thanks again to Francis. Moments later the Aces took the lead with Archambault's 13th goal of the season. The Thunder found themselves down after 20 minutes but came out firing in the second with Sivak's seventh of the season in the first minute of the period. Shawn Boutin would get a slick pass from J.T. Barnett and start a give-and-go with Hunt behind the net, resulting in the defenseman's third goal of the year. However the Aces took the wind out of the Thunder's sails again with a response 29 seconds later from Quinn Sproule. With the teams deadlocked and the game nearing overtime, someone would have to provide a special spark and it happened to be Barnett, who stood up and fought Brad Richard after Richard's hit on Sutter from behind. The spark was just what the doctor ordered because less than a minute later, Sebastian Collberg's give-and-go with Keith Seabrook put the skilled Swede in a position to make an amazing deke around an Alaskan defender and put a puck upstairs on the goaltender to put the Thunder up with under three minutes left in the game. Shattock added an empty netter and the Thunder finally beat the Alaska Aces on Hockey with Heart Night, 5-3.

Recent Transactions

12/7 - DEL Spacek (Traded to Idaho)

12/7 - ADD Spacek (Signed SPC)

12/4 - ADD Collberg (Loaned by the New York Islanders)

12/2 - ADD Simpson (Loaned by New York Islanders)

Team Leaders

Goals: Tyler Maxwell, Tyler Shattock and Peter Sivak with 7

Assists: James Henry with 15

Points: Jack MacLellan and James Henry with 19

PIMs: Lukas Sutter with 72

Wins: Shane Owen with 5

Losses: Shane Owen with 7

GAA: Shane Owen with 3.42

SV%: Shane Owen with .903

Slick New Jerseys

On Friday the Thunder sported for the first time the new 10th Anniversary jerseys. The sweaters are primarily black and feature a grayscaled "Thor Head" logo over two crossing lightning bolts with the years "2005=1B$B!m=1B(B on one bolt and "2015=1B$B!m=1B(B on the other. On the bottom of the front of the jersey the word "STOCKTON" is featured in black lettering over a white stripe.

The numbering remains the same as the Thunder's home and away jerseys however the back has white numbers outlined in black and yellow while the numbers on the sleeves are white with black and gray outlines. The shoulder yoke features the white bolt and two thin yellow stripes.

There are a couple different options for fans who'd like to purchase the new sweaters. For adult sized jerseys, fans can buy authentics for $200, replicas for $110, or the price point jerseys for $35. Currently the price point jersey is the only one that is available for youth fans. That youth price point jersey runs $25.

Hockey with Heart Win

The Thunder hosted the Aces on Saturday during the team's fourth annual Hockey with Heart event.

Entering the game, the Thunder were 1-2-0 in the previous three Hockey with Heart events, beating the Idaho Steelheads in 2011-12 thanks in part to goalie Alex Stalock, in the 7-2 win. The Thunder would fall in the next two though as they lost to the Steelheads the following year and then last season to the Colorado Eagles.

However the Thunder would prosper thanks to Sebastian Collberg's first ECHL goal and first goal with the team, beating the Alaska Aces during Hockey with Heart 2014-15, 5-3. The team is now 2-2-0 in the event's history.

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 this season.

Lalonde's 156 career points is in jeopardy as Constant pulled ahead with 148 points with the Thunder while Hunt is right behind them both with 143.

That means Constant is just 8 points back of tying the record while Hunt is 13 points back of tying the record.

Hunt is the only one close to Lalonde's all-time record of 72 goals with his 52 markers, putting the Thunder captain 20 shy of tying the record.

News and Notes

Ryan Constant is tied 8th in the league among defenseman with 14 points.

Constant's 7 power-play assists tie him for second among defenseman.

Austin Levi has scored on 27.3% of his 11 shots. That's the best shooting percentage among defenseman with over 10 shots.

The Thunder have played only two games past regulation, winning the first in a shootout and losing the second in overtime.

The Thunder have the fourth best power-play unit in the league, converting 22.2% of their 90 chances.

The Thunder are undefeated when leading after two periods (5-0-0). However, Stockton has not won a game this season when trailing after 40 minutes of play (0-11-0). The team is 4-1-1 when tied after two.

Streaks

Peter Sivak is on an eight-game point streak (5G, 6A).

Jack MacLellan is on a five-game point streak (3G, 4A).

Tyler Shattock is on a four-game point streak (3G, 3A).

Ryan Constant is on a four-game point streak (1G, 4A).

Tyler Maxwell is on a four-game point streak (4G, 1A) and three-game goal streak.

Approaching Milestones

Kent Simpson is 2 games away from 50 career ECHL games

Jack MacLellan is 3 games away from 100 career professional games played.

Jack MacLellan is also 7 points away from 50 career ECHL points.

James Henry is 12 games away from 100 played in his career.

Tyler Shattock is 22 games away from 300 in his pro career.

Alex Mallet is 5 points away from 50 in his ECHL career.

Ryan Constant is 4 goals away from 50 in his ECHL career. He's 4 assists away from 150 career ECHL assists and just 8 points away from 200 career ECHL points.

Garet Hunt is 6 games away from 400 career ECHL games played. He's 9 assists away from 100 and 7 points away from 150 in his ECHL career.

Shawn Boutin is 10 games away from 150 ECHL games. He's just 6 games away from 200 pro games played and 9 points shy of 50 in his pro career.

Peter Sivak is 2 games away from 150 career ECHL games.

Recently Accomplished Milestones

J.T. Barnett played his 50th career ECHL and pro games against Alaska on 12-6-14.

Sebastian Collberg scored his first ECHL goal on 12-6-14. He recorded his first ECHL point, an assist, on 12-5-14 against Alaska and his goal a day later against the Aces stood as the game winner.

James Henry scored his 50th career ECHL point, an assist, on Keith Seabrook's second period goal against Utah on 11-28-14.

Roberts Lipsbergs scored his first pro goal against Bakersfield on 11-26-14.

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