Barons Game 3 Recap; A Baron Net

Why, oh why, are we not able to get the puck into the net? So many chances in these games that have gone an inch or two the wrong way. This was a much better game than last weekend. The Barons were making the Aeros fight for the puck, and their first goal was a lucky one that just managed to get by Gerber after a scrum in front of the net. The Barons goal by Colin McDonald was a nice deflection off of a Petiot shot that floated over Matt Hackett's shoulder into the net. After a scoreless third, the game into OT where with 17.4 seconds left on the clock, Casey Wellman got the puck past Gerber to end the game. Definitely a heartbreak for a team that pretty much outplayed the Aeros for the majority of the game.

Highs

-Another 1 goal game, this time in OT. They've extended it all they can, it's time for a win.
-Colin McDonald getting his first goal of the season.
-I got to go on the ice during first intermission.
-Omark showed us he's got some mad stickhandling skills. Now we just need to see his shooting skills.
-The ref let the guys play, but there were some blatant calls that he let go.
-The defense looked good last night. Belle's a machine out there.
-Sound system was a little better.
-Outshot the Aeros 41-31. Now we just need those shots to make it INTO the net.
-Getting to see Bonk again was nice. You could tell he wanted to do something, but he just never got the chance to.
-Reddox was constantly attacking the net. Twice, he had awesome opportunities to get a goal.

Lows

-A heartbreak of a way to lose the game. 17 mother loving seconds left.
-The PP! 0 for 18! WTF?
-Plante and Ondrus need to take some fighting lessons from Belle.
-Sound system still sucked.
-Derrick is here why? I thought a mascot was supposed to pump up the crowd, not walk around it for photo ops. Anyone else find it sacrilegious that he wears #99?
-The prize I got during the first intermission was pretty lame($25 gift card to a restaurant), but hey, free food is free food.
-The etiquette videos. My first time getting to see them and my head wanted to explode. If they were going to do that, they should have ponied up and gotten Larry Hagman to be in it. That way, regardless of how bad they were, it's freaking Larry Hagman.
-They supposed STH-only entrance. I hadn't read the press release before I got there. According to the release, STH's got to enter through that entrance 15 minutes prior to everyone else. What ended up happening, the ushers let everyone in that corner entrance into the arena 15 minutes prior. Oops

Hopefully the team continues to improve, I'm ready for a win. Watch for my preview of tonight's game a little later.

-Written by Eric Rodgers-

Stockton Thunder Lose Opening Game 6-3 / A Game Recap

GAME RECAP: Ontario 6 - Stockton 3

10/15/2010 11:15 PM - Thunder set back on Opening Night before 6,117 fans
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FINAL STATS: Box score
VIDEO: Highlights and postgame locker room comments
AUDIO: Game highlights

STOCKTON, Calif. - Kellen Briggs made 24 saves and the Ontario Reign led wire-to-wire, capitalizing off five unanswered goals to send the Stockton Thunder to a 6-3 defeat on Opening Night, before 6,117 fans at Stockton Arena on Friday night.

The Thunder, who were led offensively by Fraser Clair with three points (2g-1a), dropped its fourth straight season opening defeat. Ontario's Tim Kraus, Jordan Morrison and rookie Aaron Lewadniuk each chipped in with two points.

Ontario got out to a fast start with three goals in the first ten minutes and took a 3-0 lead after the first period.

Shawn Collymore buried a one-timer from between the circles just 53 seconds into the game, followed by a Jeff Corey goal where he turned the defense inside-out, from off the rush and slipped a backhander through Tyson Sexsmith's five hole for a 2-0 edge with 2:31 into the first period.

Kyle Kraemer's bid from 40 feet out, straightaway, slipped through traffic and boosted the Ontario lead to 3-0 with 10:23 gone.

Ontario padded the lead to 4-0 in the second period on Matt Delahey's drive from the right point for a power-play goal at 1:32. Chaz Johnson then capitalized on a rebound at the left goal post following Sexsmith's stop on Eric Doyle's bouncing shot, boosting the edge to 5-0 at 7:48.

The Thunder finally got on the board with 4:05 left in the second when Clair banged in a rebound from the right circle, after Chris D'Alvise and Jason Pitton failed to connect on a two-on-one, tic-tac-toe style set-up.

The goal sparked a response by the Thunder who used a more physical approach to outshoot Ontario, 24-18 over the final two periods and claim three goals in the final 25 minutes.

Following Lewadniuk's first pro goal at 9:34 of the third period where he cashed in a rebound at the left goal post, Clair cut the deficit to 6-2 following a turnover with 4:09 to play, going to the backhand on Briggs from the right circle.

Jesse Gimblett, who began the third period with a scrap against Ontario's Luke Beaverson at 6:14, collected the first goal of his professional career with 21.4 seconds to play when he capitalized with a screen in front of Briggs and re-directed Clair's wrist shot from the left circle for a power-play goal.

Sexsmith took the loss in net with 24 saves.

NOTES: The Thunder scratched Trevor Hunt (injured reserve), Jordan Foreman (injured reserve) and Scott Howes (healthy) ... Sexsmith stopped a penalty shot by Tim Kraus with 15:28 left in the first period, closing the five-hole on Kraus' wrist shot ... the Thunder were outshot, 30-27 by Ontario but had a 13-8 shots edge in the third period ... the Thunder went 1-for-3 on the power-play ... Stockton's last season opening win was in 2006-07, when they opened on the road with a 6-1 victory over Bakersfield.

Stockton and Ontario will play in a rematch tomorrow at Stockton Arena, beginning at 7:30 p.m. (1280 KWSX/StocktonThunder.com).

A two-time recipient of the ECHL "Award of Excellence," Thunder was voted "Best Local Sports Team" by readers of the San Joaquin Magazine, led the ECHL in attendance for four consecutive seasons and drew over 200,000 fans for the fifth consecutive season in 2009-10. Season Tickets, mini-plans and individual tickets for 2010-11 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/

-Reprinted at OilersJambalaya.com with permission from the Stockton Thunder-

Silent Thunder

The day all Thunder hockey fans waited for-opening night, the first day of ECHL's season, was finally here. And game one, versus the Ontario Reign, was just plain ugly. The final score: 6-3. I'm not really going to do a game recap-you can look on the Stockton Thunder website for that, but I would like to do a fans-eye view on what happened out there.

We were treated to a new team video and music on the Jumbotron and a nice opening ceremony introducing each Thunder team member skating out with a member of the Stockton Colts Hockey team. Big guy/little guy skating out together-really sweet. Stockton Arena was pretty full-6000+ people. If you've been to a few hockey games, you know the routine. After the team introduction, the National Anthem is sung, there's a ceremonial puck drop, then the real puck drop.

And then the game. After getting the crowd loud and rowdy, it was really deflating when Ontario scored against Stockton's goalie Tyson Sexsmith less than a minute into the first period. I wasn't really worried at that point. Nerves, I told myself, opening night jitters. But not too long after that goal, Ontario was up 2-0.

What was wrong? Really poor passing, which results in turnovers. And when your team turns the puck over then can't get it out of their defensive zone, eventually that puck will end up in your net. The puck passing was sloppy because the players seemed out of sync with each other. The Thunder kept shooting wide of the net. Didn't try hard enough to keep the puck in when they'd get it into the offensive zone. The powerplay and penalty kill equally reeked. And the shots on goal...one could probably ask, what shots on goal? If I remember correctly, during the opening period the SOG were Thunder-3, Ontario-12. The score after first period? Thunder-0, Ontario 3.

Not everything was terrible, though. In second period, the crowd finally got to stand up, scream and cheer when Thunder's Fraser Clair, with assists from Chris D'Alvise and Jason Pitton, got the puck past Reign goalie Kellen Briggs.

Fraser Clair would get on the score sheet for the next two goals, he scored unassisted in the third period, and had a helper along with J. Pitton on Jesse Gimblett's goal scored in the final minute of the game on a powerplay.

It was a frustrating game to watch. There was no hustle or desperation until the last half of the third period. The Thunder started to get clicking a little, by battling for loose pucks, finally jumping on rebounds, but by then the damage had been done.

Although he didn't seem as big in net or as confident as I've seen him in the preseason games, I can't pin a large part of the loss on Thunder goalie Sexsmith. He did have a few "softies" go in, but on the most part, there was no defense helping him out.

The second game of the season is tomorrow night, also against the Ontario Reign. Getting this stinker of a match out of the way, one can only hope the team learned a little of what not to do. I'm looking forward to a much better outing tomorrow night. In every match-up there can only be one winner, and I hope to see the Thunder rule the arena on Saturday.

For photos from the game please visit: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106641&id=1367406758&l=250c34f3f8

OKC Barons vs Houston Aeros / A LIVE TweetCast

Welcome to the LIVE TweetCast of the Oklahoma City Barons vs the Houston Aeros. Follow along as Scott (@OilFieldHockey) and Eric (@AHLBarons) tweet the game.

THE GAME PREVIEW IS HERE

Game Summary Sheet CLICK HERE

Listen LIVE Here

GAME TIME: 6:05pm MDT

OKC Barons Game 3 Preview: vs. Houston, Take Two

Away: Houston Aeros (1-0-0) Last Game: 6-1 win vs. OKC
Home: Oklahoma City Barons( 0-2-0) Last Game: 2-1 loss vs. Chicago

Quick news and notes

-The Barons will play their first game after their inaugural weekend where they dropped both games.
-In the last meeting, the Aeros beat the Barons last Saturday 6-1 in the Barons inaugural game.
-Hartikainen has scored the only two Barons goals this season.
-Giroux leads the team in PIM with 16 minutes.
-The Barons are 0/15 on the PP and 12/14 on the PK.
-Projected Lines:

Giroux-Moran-McDonald
Reddox-O’Marra-Omark
Hartikainen-Kytnar-Ondrus
Cornet-Vande Velde-Marquardt
Goalie: Not positive, but I'm thinking Pitton will get the nod. He was getting a bit more work in practice on Thursday.

Players to watch:
OKC: Hartikainen, for obvious reasons. Remains to be seen if the first line is going to work well together.
HOU: Matt Hackett, if he starts in goal. Stopped 30 of 31 OKC shots last weekend. Petr Kalus(23) and Joel Broda(56) each scored twice last weekend.

After the blowout on Saturday, Todd Nelson adjusted the lines a little bit which seemed to help some, as the Barons looked a bit more in sync vs. Chicago. After a week of practice, hopefully things will turn out a lot better than last weekend’s game.

Puck drops at 7:05. You can listen to the game on 96.1 KXY or watch the game on AHL Live. Be sure to follow myself (@AHLBarons) and Scott (@OilFieldHockey) as we tweet from the game.

-Written by Eric Rodgers-