I Do... Again

Tonight, Dawn and I renewed our wedding vows in front of thousands of screaming fans. Well, we weren’t the only ones. The Stockton Thunder and KATM 103.3 had a promotion tonight where DJ Walker, a licensed minister, performed another mass wedding on the ice after the first period. Although most were there to renew their wedding vows, there were quite a few couple actually getting married. What did we wear for this occasion? Well, I wore the same Stockton Thunder shirts I wear to every game, along with a black suit coat. Dawn wore her Thunder shirt along with a beautiful veil. We were at a hockey game getting married (again) after all.

We watched the first period on TV in the large banquet room and then made our way out on to the ice. With a fight in the first couple of minutes and a 3-0 lead, the Thunder had done more than there share getting the crowd excited.

After we were re-married we went to our seats and joined the friends and family that had come out to watch us (and a hockey game).

The rest of the game did not go so well for the Thunder and we eventually lost 5-4. The Thunder remained scoreless in the second period and only scored the 4th goal on the very last second of the game.

We also tried, along with some people sitting near us, to start a wave. We never really got it going but Mike went down near the glass and got a lot of people to start doing it.

Thanks to Tony, Mike, Shauna, Christian, Rachel, Emily, Makenzy, Jack, Rita, Ken, Megen, Kenny, Missy, Dad, Angela, Tom, Tom, and Justin for coming out and sharing our special night with us.

I love you Dawn!

Check out the pictures from tonight here.

Also, Ken took a video of the fight between Stockton’s Adam Huxley and Bakersfield’s Hank

Stockton Thunder Goes Pink III

The win streak on pink ice has ended. Tonight was game two of Thunder Goes Pink III, taking on the Victoria Salmon Kings. The near sell out crowd was more energetic then they were on opening night even though there were no real fights and we lost another one. At the beginning of the game DJ Walker asked cancer survivors in the audience stand up followed by friends and family of people affected by cancer. It was quite an emotional sight when nearly the entire audience of 9,000+ stood up. The Thunder brought out Cameron the Super Fan, a huge favorite in Stockton, who for the first time we can remember, took the mic and spoke to the crowd. He told of how he lost his mother to cancer when he was a teenager and commended the fans for the great support of this great benefit event.

Check out the pics here.

Kudos to the Stockton Thunder folks for putting together another great night of hockey in Stockton!

Stockton Thunder Home Opener '08

Just as we did the last couple of years, we went to the opening home game of our Stockton Thunder. Last night they took on the Fresno Falcons. We sat in section 107, row 9 which is probably my favorite place to sit. The crowd was very energetic and did a lot of screaming - both at our team as well as a lot of trash talking to the Fresno squad. Either my hearing is going south (I doubt it) or the PA in the arena was turned down a bit. They had a band (well, actually, a guy on guitar and another on bass) play the Star Spangled Banner but it was barely audible.

Mike Lalonde scored first putting the Thunder up 1-0. The Falcons, however, would come back and score 3 goals in just under 3 minutes of play to silence the arena a bit.

We eventually added one more goal but eventually fell to the Falcons and suffered our first home opener loss.

What about the fights you ask? Well, there were enough fights to keep everyone entertained for most of the night. The first fight came 7 minutes into the game and put our Garet Hunt against Fresno’s Spencer Carbery.

The second fight of the night came a minute or so later, just as play was resumed and was between Stockton's Milan Maslonka and Fresno's Kyle Hagel.

We also took a few pictures... check them out here.

Also, check out all of posts, videos and pictures from the last three seasons here.

Stockton Thunder game

Mike and I went to game three of the ECHL playoffs last night to watch the Stockton Thunder square off against the Las Vegas Wranglers. The Thunder took an early lead with the first goal and then even got up to a 0-3 advantage. The cheers were quieted by the end of regulation when the Wranglers scored three unanswered goals of their own. We played a tough OT period but just couldn't score, even with a couple of power plays! The Wrangler finally put us out of our misery with less than a minute left on the clock. The Thunder are now down 3-1 and need another win to stay alive. Check out the pics here.

I also took a couple of videos. The first one is the of the first goal scored of the game, the second one is one of a flying puck (not sure how well that comes across on YouTube).

Thunder Goes Pink II

Dawn, Makenzy, Emily and a friend went to the Stockton Thundergame tonight, a ladies night out, for the second annual Thunder Goes Pink night. This is such a great way to raise awareness and money for breast cancer. The ice was painted pink and the Thunder players wore special pink jerseys. The Thunder were victorious and the girls had a great night out!

Check out the pics here.

Stockton Thunder home opener '07

The Stockton Arena was rockin' tonight when we were joined by 8,640 or so of our closest friends for the first Thunder home game of the season. Tonight, our Thunder squared off against the Alaska Aces in a contest that saw not a single fight (boo hoo!).

Thunder scored first near the end of the first period and followed it up with a second goal that saw a few Aces players collide into the goalie. It was like a traffic accident being taken apart piece by piece. After a few minutes, when the officials awarded Stockton with the goal, the arena went psycho!

Neither team scored in the second period but Alaska did manage to get a couple of goals in the final period in regulation to tie the contest at 2. Rohlfs ended the sudden death match at 2:10 into OT with a sweet shot. We may be 2-3, but at least we won our home opener.

For tonight's game, we set in section 114, row 5. It was nice to be a little closer and see some pucks go flying as well as really hearing the glass pounding, but sitting this close made it hard to see down on the other end of the ice.

Check out pics here. I took a lot of video but no fights and no goals. I did manage to hit record just after the game winning goal went in... check it out on YouTube here.

If you want to take a retro look back... check out the 2006 Stockton Thunder home opener or check out all of our posts on the Thunderhere.

Thunder Video

What's the best way to spend a Saturday night in Stockton? At a hockey game! It was a sell out game so we were lucky to get nose bleed seats, well, some may consider them nose bleed but there aren't any bad seats in the arena. We lost the game but it was a great night of hockey anyway. As always, I put up a couple of videos on YouTube.

Videos: Thunder's first goal to tie the game - from our seats in section 210.

Jeff Lang (Thunder) dukes it out with Greg Stewart (Cyclones) - from KW's seat in section 209.

Thunder Loses First Home Game of Season

The Stockton Thunder lost their first home game this season when the Alaska Aces scored a late third period goal to tie the game and eventually beat us in the first shutout.

There was not a single fight in the whole game so I put up a goal instead. Click here to see the third period score by Brandon Hodge on YouTube.

Stockton Thunder!

Our new October tradition... Stockton Thunder Hockey!

Early last year, when we heard that Stockton's new arena would be home to a minor league hockey team, we were less than impressed. Hockey was never a sport that we followed in our house and it didn't seem to match very well with our warm weather and culture. We were much more excited to be getting Arena Football and Major League indoor soccer.

As the season started to get closer we decided that we wanted to be part of the hype of the new team and went to the second home game. From the moment we walked in the arena we knew this was going to be cool! When the game started we were on our feet, along with 9,000 other Stockton Thunder fans and we have been hooked ever since.

So, tonight we showed up, decked out in Thunder gear, ready to scream our lungs out for our hometown Thunder!

If you're a sports fan and live within an hour of Stockton, you have to check this out! Trust me when I say that hockey is meant to watched live; so many people have the same comment after watching their first game: "I could never get into hockey on TV... but this is awesome!"

What a game! The Thunder start the season 2-0 and right in the middle of the Pacific Division and end tonight's game being the only undefeated team in the ECHL.

The first fight of the night. The Arena went crazy when Huxley (Stockton) knocked Neilson right on his bum.

The Long Beach Ice Dogs scored an early first goal but the Thunder tied it up before the end of the first period (click here for the video from the first goal scored at home this season). The same pattern would continue for the second and third period with Long Beach scoring first and then Stockton getting a goal. The final shot in regulation came from Stockton with only 34 seconds left on the clock. The 5 minutes of overtime passed with no scoring so we were treated to a nail-biting shoot out. We tied throughout the first group of attempts so then we went into sudden death shoot out mode!

After 6 failed attempts by each club, Brendon Hodge slaps one in and the Thunder win a close one!

Congrats Thunder... you rock!

game stats click here for pictures

Hockey in Stockton?

Given the choice between soccer and hockey, we’d take soccer. Add arena football to the equation and we’d take that every day of the week. We really enjoyed going to Ports games at the old park but fell in love with the new ballpark on the waterfront. This made sense.

Hockey, though? In Stockton?

Well, we decided to go the second game at the arena tonight and let me tell you, we are cynics no more!

The Stockton Thunder is, hands down, the best entertainment value in Stockton. We have never watched hockey before but quickly caught on. Even the girls loved the game. At the end of the second period we got up to leave. That was, until the couple sitting next to us educated us. We had no idea there was three periods.

Throughout the final period, Emily and Makenzy were on their feet, cheering on their new favorite team.

I can tell we’re going to be seeing a lot more of these guys. The play is awesome. The entertainment is great. The crowds are better than anything else in Stockton.

This is exactly what Stockton has been begging for.

Now given the choice, we’ll take hockey every day!

Kudos to Dan Chapman for putting together another winner!

Go Thunder!