Although the Stockton Thunder didn't get past the second round of this season's ECHL playoffs, the team still has several ties to the Kelly Cup final.
When the Las Vegas Wranglers and Florida Everblades open the final series on Monday night (May 14) in Las Vegas, each team's roster will include former Thunder personnel.
Las Vegas has the most connections to Stockton because the Wranglers are coached by former Thunder assistant Ryan Mougenel and have three former Stockton players on their active roster. The players are forwards Adam Huxley, whose toughness made him a fan favorite during a three-season stint with the Thunder beginning in 2006; Judd Blackwater, who played parts of two seasons with the Thunder beginning in 2008 and was among the leading scorers in Las Vegas this season with 56 points (21 goals, 35 assists) in just 46 games; and Geoff Paukovich, who spent parts of the 2007-'08 and '08-'09 seasons in Stockton and joined the Wranglers in 2010.
Florida also has a connection to the Thunder as forward Matt Marquardt, who amassed 23 points (nine goals, 14 assists) for the Everblades this season, played part of the '09-'10 season in Stockton.
"It's always great to see people you know succeed," Thunder Coach Matt Thomas said. "They all deserve a chance to be part of a championship team."
Thomas and Mougenel shared a Kelly Cup championship in 2003, when Thomas was an assistant coach and Mougenel was a player for the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies. The '02-'03 season was Mougenel's last as a player, and he became an assistant coach under Thomas with the now-defunct Fresno Falcons in 2005. Mougenel came to Stockton with Thomas after the Falcons folded during the '08-'09 season, and he has been the head coach in Las Vegas for the past three seasons.
"I think he has done a tremendous job," Thomas said of Mougenel, who has posted a winning record in each of his first three seasons as a head coach in the ECHL. "He knows what works, and he knows how to make it happen."
Mougenel, whose playing career was cut short by a wrist injury that never properly healed, credits Thomas for helping him recapture his passion for the game after being away from it for a couple of seasons before becoming a coach.
"Matty Thomas really got me into coaching," Mougenel recently told the Las Vegas Review Journal. "He taught me so much. He got me to love the game again."
Mougenel will love it even more if the Wranglers can bring the Kelly Cup to Las Vegas for the first time. But regardless of which team eventually skates away with the Cup, the Thunder can feel a certain attachment to it.
"We can't win it, but at least we'll know somebody who does," Thomas said. "You would always rather have a friend win than somebody you don't know."
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