Thunder Best in the West Despite Shoot-Out Loss

After Stockton Thunder's Thursday night shoot-out win over the visiting Idaho Steelheads, the Thunder took another hit to their ever changing roster.

Center Chris D'Alvise, Thunder's top scorer with 17 points in 12 games, signed a Professional Try-Out Agreement with the AHL's Springfield Falcons.

Fortunately, left-winger Jason Pitton was back from his call-up with the AHL's Manitoba Moose and was able to suit up for tonight's game. Chase Ryan was activated off the Injured Reserve and was in the lineup. In goal for Stockton again was Garrett Zemlak, who was brilliant in his Thursday night debut.

Tonight's game did not have a good start for the Thunder. Nine seconds into the game, Fraser Clair took a holding penalty. This quickly turned into a 5 on 3 penalty kill after Anthony Aiello was charged with high-sticking in a defensive zone face-off.

The Steelheads didn't score on their first 5 on 3 powerplay, But Idaho had another 5 on 3 in the third period and scored on that, tying the game with the goal Stockton's Chris Lawrence got in the second period.

Once again, Garrett Zemlak had to be in top form. He bailed the Thunder out the whole 60 minutes of the game, and then in the 5 minute overtime period. Stockton had 7 powerplays and couldn't captilize on any of them. Sloppy passing and multiple turnovers made it hard for the Thunder to get anything going. And when a play would finally start to develop in their offensive zone, the inability to take advantage of the juicy rebounds and partially open net Idaho's goalie Mike Zacharias kept leaving was frustrating to watch.

The Thunder was defeated by the Steelheads in the shoot-out. Mike Gabinet and John Swanson scored shoot-out goals for Idaho, but Chris Lawrence was the only one from the Thunder to get a puck past Zacharias.

One bright spot in this game is that even with tonight's shoot-out loss, the Thunder is atop the ECHL's Western Conference with an 8-1-4 record, 20 points, and a .769 winning percentage.

Tomorrow the Stockton Thunder hosts the Victoria Salmon Kings. Garet Hunt and Jesse Gimblett will be available to play now that they have served their suspensions.

Three stars of the night:

1. John Swanson (Idaho)


2. Mike Zacharias (Idaho)


3. Garrett Zemlak (Stockton)

Oilers vs Coyotes and OKC Barons vs Stars

OKC Barons Practice for Nov 19th

Storylines for today's practice.
1. Alex Plante on ice or not
2. No Gerber for tonight's game.
3. Recall of Bryan Pitton

Goalie Zemlak Anchors the Thunder

The Stockton Thunder has had a lot to deal with as a team this week. Garet Hunt is serving game 1 of a 2 game suspension, and Jesse Gimblett is on game 3 of a 4 game suspension; goalie Tyson Sexsmith is out with a broken hand; Jason Pitton was called up to the Manitoba Moose; Jordan Bendfeld was called up to the Oklahoma City Barons; and today, goalie Bryan Pitton flew to OKC to back up Jeff Deslauriers.

That's a lot of adjustments to make in a short period of time, but such is the life of an ECHL team.

Tonight the Stockton Thunder was matched against the Idaho Steelheads-who also had their starting goalie, Tyler Beskorowany, recalled by the Texas Stars. In goal for this game was Garrett Zemlak for the Thunder and Michael Zacharias for the Steelheads.

It's easy to be nervous about a game like this. Defenseman Ryan Constant was moved up to the first line to play as a forward with Chris D'Alvise and Fraser Clair. Center Marcus Watson signed an Amateur Tryout Agreement with Stockton today. The emergency backup goalie to Tyson Sexsmith (who was moved to the 7-day IR), Garrett Zemlak would be starting in net. There's no time to get used to each other, no time to really accustom to the changes.

Well Coach Thomas is a smart man, and the impromptu team he put together did well tonight, defeating the Idaho Steelheads 3-2 in a shoot-out win. What we needed was for the rest of the Thunder to step-up huge, and they did.

Mark Arcobello, with an assist from Bretton Cameron, put the Thunder ahead 1-0 midway through the first period. Idaho tied up the score at 1 halfway through the second period with a goal from Kael Mouillierat. A powerplay goal by Bretton Cameron put the Thunder up 2-1 late in the second period. But in the third, with less than a minute left in the game, Idaho, who pulled the goalie for an extra attacker, tied the game at 2. The game went into the 5-minute overtime period, and then to a shoot-out.

Let's talk about Garrett Zemlak. I was really curious to see how he would play, having been thrown into this game as the starting goalie. But he was everything a fan could've asked for. He looked huge in net, he directed rebounds into the corners, he didn't overplay the puck, he made some nifty glove saves, helped kill a four minute high-sticking penalty late in the third period, and kept the Thunder in the game during the five minute overtime period.

And the shoot-out is where Zemlak shone. Anthony Aiello and Chris D'Alvise scored shoot-out goals for Stockton, and the only puck Idaho could get by Zemlak was shot by Marty Flichel. I love seeing the goalie ecstatic after a win, and Zemlak was no exception. There was a small crowd of 3,144 in attendance at Stockton Arena, but I hope Zemlak heard our cheers of appreciation. It was a thrilling victory, and I'm sure a lot of fans who have kept up with all the recent changes with the team were able to breathe once this game was over.

Stars of the game:

1. Garrett Zemlak
2. Bretton Cameron
3. Mark Arcobello

Linus Omark Interview, Cleaner Translation

Many thanks to Martin Lundén (@dohfOs) for the translation.

Edmonton Oilers prospect Linus Omark recently had a chat with Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet to talk about his time in Oklahoma City Barons and what the future might hold for him.

Something that needs to be taken into account when reading this is that Aftonbladet is the largest tabloid in Sweden. It also writes by far the most crap and I doubt there is any paper that’s taken the expression “there’s no news like bad news” in as much as they have. They are rather known for their focus on the bad parts and trying to make something out of nothing. An example would be one of their latest articles, stating Calgary Flames GM Darryl Sutter had enough of his own alcoholic son, Brett Sutter, and got rid of him in a trade with Carolina Hurricanes. Well, that’s not exactly what happened now was it?

Article with Linus Omark below, read between the lines and you’ll soon figure out Omark is actually quite positive about his future, not being full of himself. He’s not at all sour – that’s just papers talking for him (and him not being able to express himself good enough when speaking English during interviews).

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“We would get beaten by some Swedish teams”
Omark on the boring life in the AHL: “Obviously it’s not here you want to be”.
The dream was to play vs. NHL-stars such as Alexander Ovechkin and get to play in Edmonton.
Instead Linus Omark ended up in Oklahoma City Barons where the audience are lured coming using free turkey, fights but not to watch nice plays.
Welcome to the AHL – the league noone wants to play in, that goes for Omark as well.
Ticket sales have been so and so. Even though it’s newly renovated barely 3000 made it to the arena that houses 14000 and something had to be done. For the next game Oklahoma made up their mind: 1 dollar a beer.
Adding to that, all supporters were given a shot to win a 8.8 lbs turkey. All they had to do was to score on an empty net.
- Well yes, people tend to like beer around here, Omark smiles.
How the people feel about turkey remains unsaid but it’s clear the difference between the NHL and the AHL is more then just a letter.
He wanted to play in the NHL and he hoped to be playing for Edmonton.
He ended up playing in the AHL and for Oklahoma. Instead of battling it out with Toronto and Montreal he’s playing the San Antonio Rampage and Rockford Ice Hogs.

Didn’t know anything
- I hardly knew anything about Oklahoma except that it was the location of the Edmonton AHL affiliate. I googled some information before I left.
A couple of weeks later he knows this:
The hockey as easy as possible:
- The game (over here) is a lot stricter then at home or in Russia. They want you to dump the puck into the zone at all times. Here you can play a really simple game and be successful just doing that. I guess you could say we would get beaten by a Swedish team on a big rink.

The game schedule can sometimes be a nightmare:
- We’ve played ten games in fifteen days, once we played three different games in the same amount of days and there are is lot of travelling.
Everyone has the same target: leaving the AHL as quickly as possible.
- Obviously, this is not where I wanted to be. I’m not satisfied being here but you have to accept it and not be depressed about it.
While waiting on the call from Edmonton the only thing he can do is doing his best. So far with great success, recently with five goals in a game and a AHL player of the week award.

Well defined roles
I just continue playing the way I do. Obviously I want to play in the NHL and the positive is that I’m getting used to how things work by playing down here. There are very clear, well defined roles in who’s doing what around here (referring to how it’s different from Sweden and the KHL), some are supposed to fight and others play box play. Mine is to score points.

You’re seen as the player who makes nice plays. How often do you get challenged to fight during games?
- Well, it happens. But I’m not a fighter and I don’t fight. But sometimes there can be up to five fights a game.
How much do you follow Edmonton playing?
- Sure I check if they’ve won and if they would call I’d be really, really happy. But my focus for now has to remain here (and on Oklahoma). What I’m missing the most right now is interest in the team and playing in front of a big crowd.
Have you set yourself a deadline?
- I can see myself staying here for a whole season. I got no plans going home, I want to give this an honest shot.

Next week he’s playing two games on the road on the same amount of days vs. Lake Erie Monsters, 1700 kilometres (1 056.33103 miles) away from Oklahoma.
And yes, hoe about the ticket sales and the turkeys?
Well, there where just 3600 people there, but at least they got to see a Oklahoma win vs. Chicago.

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Pretty amazing how some things get lost in translation. Thanks again to Martin Lundén. One thing is true though, it's bad that the majority of OKC fans don't come for the hockey. We've got some great players out there that have more than just fighting and skating skills. I was wondering just the other day, of the opening day crowd of 9000, how many people really knew who Linus Omark was? Hopefully we can get some people to convert one of these days.

-Written by -Eric Rodgers-