Stockton Thunder goalie Olivier Roy matched a team record Friday night (Jan. 6) by posting his third shutout of the season.
Roy stopped all 29 shots he faced and made a single goal by Jordan Fulton hold up for a 1-0 victory over the Bakersfield Condors in front of 5,120 spectators at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield, CA. The teams will meet again at the same location on Saturday night (Jan. 7).
Roy's performance allowed him to tie the club record for shutouts in a season, matching the mark previously set by Tim Boron during the 2007-'08 season and repeated by Andrew Perugini during the 2009-'10 season.
"We got one goal and he made it stand up," Thunder Coach Matt Thomas said by telephone after the game. "We needed a big game from him and he delivered it."
The victory was the second in a row for Roy and the Thunder, and allowed the team to start a five-game road trip on a positive note.
"We played a smart, detailed road game," Thomas said. "I liked the way we controlled the puck. And when we had breakdowns, we were able to recover. It was a well-executed game."
By winning, the Thunder (14-13-4) moved 13 points ahead of the last-place Condors (8-24-3) in the ECHL Pacific Division standings and also pulled to within one point of the Utah Grizzlies and Idaho Steelheads for fifth place in the Western Conference.
Another Stockton victory on Saturday would allow the Thunder to win three games in a row for the first time all season.
"We can't worry about what type of streak we might be on," Thomas said. "We just want to come out and have a strong repeat performance of the way we just played."
Fulton produced the only goal of the game just 1 minute, 42 seconds into the first period, when he slipped behind the Bakersfield defense and scored from the top of the crease off an assist from Bretton Cameron. The goal gave Fulton nine points in his past nine games.
Milan Kytnar nearly gave the Thunder a two-goal cushion late in the second period, but his shot from close range was stopped by Condors goalie Matt Keetley, who made 23 saves in absorbing the hard-luck loss.
As it turned out, Roy didn't need an insurance goal despite facing some quality Bakersfield scoring chances down the stretch.
After Roy made a nice save on a rebound shot by Tyler Helfrich with slightly less than nine minutes left in the third period, the Thunder faced a Bakersfield power play when Colten Hayes was called for a tripping penalty. Roy, who improved his record to 6-8-4, came up with another big save during the penalty kill when he stopped Scott Freeman from close range before Erik Burgdoerfer shot the rebound wide of the Stockton net.
Moments later, Roy made a glove save on a blast by Burgdoerfer from the right-wing faceoff circle to again keep the Condors off the scoreboard.
A penalty against Bakersfield's Ian McKenzie for boarding Thunder winger Ian O'Connor with just 2:11 left to play allowed the Thunder to skate with a man advantage as time wound down. The Condors lead the ECHL with nine short-handed goals, but the Thunder managed to control the puck for most of the power play and ran out the clock after Jordan Foreman won a critical defensive-zone faceoff in the closing seconds.
For the game, the Thunder failed to score on five power-play chances and Bakersfield came up empty on four extra-man opportunities.
NOTES:
Earlier in the week, the Edmonton Oilers re-assigned forward Cameron Abney from Stockton to the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League. In 24 games with the Thunder, Abney was credited with two goals and three assists.
