The Stockton Thunder finally rewarded goalie Olivier Roy with his first ECHL victory on Friday night (Nov. 18).
Roy turned in a 40-save performance and Kevin Baker broke a 2-2 tie with a clutch third-period goal as the Thunder escaped with a 3-2 decision over the Ontario Reign in front of a crowd of 6,787 at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, CA.
The victory ended what had been a run of hard luck for Roy, who was 0-3-3 in the first six starts of his ECHL career despite playing well enough to win most of those games. Roy entered play Friday with a goals-against average of 2.59 and a save percentage of .911, but the Thunder had averaged only 1.67 goals per game in support of the rookie goaltender.
“Olivier stood his ground and played great,” Thunder Coach Matt Thomas said by telephone after the game. “He kept us in it for two periods, and then we found a way to win for him.”
If not for Roy, whose 40 saves were a season high, the Thunder (6-4-3) might have found itself buried by the second intermission. Ontario held a 31-14 advantage in shots through two periods, but was clinging to just a 2-1 lead entering the final 20 minutes. Stockton’s Milan Kytnar evened the score with a goal at 2:24 of the third period, and Baker scored on a rebound at 11:45 to give Roy the cushion he needed to nail down his first victory.
“He deserved it,” Thomas said of Roy, who withstood a fierce Ontario attack after the Reign pulled goalie J.F. Berube for an extra skater in the final minute. “He has played so well, and we needed to reward him. That’s what I’m most happy about.”
For the fifth time in the past six games, the Thunder scored first, taking a 1-0 lead when Matt Foy beat Berube at 15:53 of the first period. The Reign (7-5-1) pulled into a 1-1 tie when Geoff Irwin scored a power-play goal at 18:32 while Ontario was enjoying a two-man advantage.
The only goal of the second period came when the Reign again capitalized on a five-on-three power play, this time getting a goal from Derek Couture with 9:03 left in the period.
The Thunder offense hit stride in the third period, in which Stockton managed 13 shots. Foy set up Kytnar’s tying goal after an Ontario turnover, and Baker’s game-winner was the result of hard work in front of the net. The goal also was the third in three games for Baker, who was the ECHL’s Most Valuable Player when he led the league in scoring while playing for the Florida Everblades during the 2008-’09 season.
“It was good to see a veteran player score the game-winning goal,” Thomas said. “It was time for a guy like that to step up. He made a hard-nosed play and got rewarded for it.”
The Thunder will close out a six-game road trip by facing the Reign again on Saturday (Nov. 19). With Friday’s victory, the Thunder guaranteed itself a winning record on the trip. Through the first five games, Stockton is 3-1-1 and has captured seven of a possible 10 points.
NOTES:
Although defenseman Colten Hayes was activated from the injured reserve list, the Thunder had only five defensemen in uniform for the game. The defense corps was depleted because Dan Ringwald was loaned to the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League and Sebastian Owuya was unable to play after suffering an injury in a 4-2 loss at Ontario on Wednesday night.
In addition to Hayes, the Thunder also activated winger Jesse Fratkin from the injured reserve list, allowing Fratkin to make his ECHL debut.
Thunder center Gabriel Levesque, who suffered a serious hip injury in the Wednesday game at Ontario, returned to Stockton on Friday and was placed on the 21-day injured reserve list.
