Stockton Thunder / Training Camp Time! / #StkThunder

Training Camp Time!

09/17/2010 4:34 PM -
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OILERS: Complete 2010-11 Training Camp coverage
SHARKS: Complete 2010-11 Training Camp coverage

VIDEO: Bryan Pitton's pregame comments before Wednesday night
VIDEO: Jordan Bendfeld and "Fight Club"
VIDEO: Mike Benton joins Worcester Sharks head coach Roy Sommer
MORE: German connection hits Sharks camp

Summer is finally over. Both affiliates, the Edmonton Oilers and San Jose Sharks, hit the ice beginning Saturday to open 2010-11 main training camps. The Thunder has you covered to keep in the know of all things Oil Country and Team Teal.

Both the Oilers and Sharks finished 2-1 in the round robin format of the 2010 Vancouver Canucks YoungStars Tournament in Penticton, B.C.

Bryan Pitton, shown practicing
with the Oilers, is one of two
players with Thunder experience
in NHL Training Camp.
(photo by Andy Devlin/EOHC)

Two players with experience in a Thunder uniform, goaltender Bryan Pitton and defenseman Jordan Bendfeld, are participating in NHL Training Camp starting this weekend.

Bendfeld, 22, was selected in the seventh round (193rd overall) of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft by Edmonton and has skated in 69 career games for the Thunder over the last two seasons (2008-10), scoring 13 points (1g-12a) while posting 116 penalty minutes. He recorded five points (1g-4a) and a +10 rating in 15 Kelly Cup Playoff games last season.

Bendfeld had 15 penalty minutes in two games, against Calgary and San Jose, during the tournament for the Oilers.

Pitton, 22, was selected by the Oilers in the fifth round (133rd overall) in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft and is 18-28-6 with a 3.18 goals-against-average and .901 save percentage in 56 lifetime games with Stockton. Last season, he earned two separate recalls directly to Edmonton and left the ECHL on Feb. 1 on a recall to Springfield of the AHL by ranking second in the league with a .921 save percentage.

Pitton stopped 26 shots on Wednesday against San Jose, his only apperance of the tournament.

The 6-foot-2, 176-pound goaltender broke a Thunder playoff record last year with 49 saves in Game 3 of the National Conference Final, a 1-0 win in triple overtime against the Idaho Steelheads for his first career playoff shutout.

Thunder radio play-by-play announcer Mike Benton, on-site for the tournament's webcast coverage, contributed with reports for the Sharks website, http://www.sjsharks.com/.

-Written by the Stockton Thunder-