STOCKTON, Calif. – The Stockton Thunder have improved their record to 10-3-1 with 21 points following a victory over the Idaho Steelheads with a final score of 4-3 before 4,601 fans at the Stockton Arena.
The Steelheads broke open the scoring with only eleven seconds off the clock when Adrian Foster beat Tyler Bunz with a wrist shot. Gord Baldwin and Tristan King were credited with the assists. Stockton’s Toni Rajala scored his tenth goal for the season at 13:20 to even the score to one apiece. The Stockton goal assists were credited to Nathan Deck and Eric Hunter. The score would remain knotted through the balance of the first period.
Just over a minute into the second period, Rajala scored his second goal of the night, with assists to Matt Reber and Philippe Cornet. Idaho scored the equalizer at 11:47 with a power play goal from Hurbert Labrie, unassisted.
Again, just over a minute into the third stanza, Harrison Reed found a hole and scored on Tyler Beskorawany with assists to Garet Hunt and Justin Maylan. Only a couple of minutes later, at 3:41, a power play goal from Phil Mangan, with assists to Maylan and Ryan Constant would give the Thunder their fourth goal for the night, and ultimately all they needed, as Idaho couldn’t get enough momentum from one last goal at 17:50 into the third period, despite the extra man advantage in the last minute.
The Thunder outshot the Steelheads 36-16, holding them to only four shots in the first period, and five in the second. Rajala increased his scoring streak to eleven games, the longest in the ECHL this season. Deck has points in nine of his last eleven games and leads the Thunder defenseman with 13 points in fourteen games.
The Thunder is 6-1 on home ice and will return after the Thanksgiving holiday on Friday, November 23, to take on the Bakersfield Condors at home. Idaho returns home on Wednesday, November 21 to face the Alaska Aces.
Contact the writer at Shellie.Lima@prohockeynews.com
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