Thunder Win Final Preseason Game 4-3 In SO
Stockton earns victory over San Francisco after seven round shootout
The Stockton Thunder earned a hard-fought 4-3 shootout victory over the San Francisco Bulls on Saturday night.
It was the second game in as many days for Stockton that required more than the 60 minutes of regulation to determine a winner. Following a scoreless overtime period the game went to a shootout that took seven rounds to determine a winner.
Corey Trivino scored with the first shot of the skills competition, and it appeared that it would stand up as the winner, until Bulls’ forward Brett Parnham slipped a shot through the five-hole of Parker Milner with San Francisco’s fifth attempt. After a scoreless sixth round, James Henry ripped a shot off the pipe and in, while Milner stopped Christian Ouellett to clinch the victory.
The game was a tense back-and-forth affair as three times the Thunder took the lead only to see the Bulls follow suit with a goal each time.
Stockton got things started early in the first period when Alex MacLeod tipped home a shot hammered from the right wing just 1:28 into the game. Kevin Noble and Sean Escobedo picked up assists on the effort.
But it was another tipped slapshot that had the teams back on even footing just a few minutes later. Dale Mitchell tipped home Scott Langdon’s blast from the point to get the Bulls offense humming.
The Thunder struck back two and a half minutes later when Escobedo kept a clearing attempt in the zone, and picked out former Boston University teammate Trivino in front of the net. He patiently spun to the back post only to see his shot saved by sprawling Bulls’ netminder Tyler Beskorowany. But Trivino gathered the rebound and popped it home over a host of orange jerseys for a 2-1 Thunder lead.
That looked to be the scoreline heading into the break, but with 2.2 seconds to play in the periodRyan McDonough smacked home a shot in close off a pass from Chris Crane. That made it 2-2 with twenty minutes down.
Less than six minutes into the second, James Henry put Stockton in front once again with a tipped shot that found the back of the cage off a drive from defenseman Michal Spacek.
But ten minutes later the Bulls evened the score for a third time with McDonough tapping home from close range following a highlight-reel, tic-tac-toe passing play by Chris Crane and Dean Ouellett. The Bulls outshot the Thunder 39-23, and both Milner and Beskorowany had strong games in net.
The win gives the Thunder a 2-0 record as it finishes off its postseason schedule. The Thunder opens the regular season on October 19th against the Colorado Eagles. The puck drops at 7:30 following a pre-game ceremony where the Thunder’s 2013 Western Conference Champions banner will be raised to the rafters.