The Idaho Steelheads (1-0-0) earned the victory in tonight’s home opener at Qwest Arena over the Stockton Thunder (0-1-0) by a final score of 3-1. Mark McCutcheon led the way for the Steelheads with three points on the evening; a goal, and two assists, as he factored into every Steelheads goal.
Stockton opened the scoring with a power play goal from Judd Blackwater, his first, assisted by Craig Valette. The goal was the result of a pair of early penalties taken by Steelheads captain Marty Flichel. Late in the period, however, Mark McCutcheon opened the scoring for the Steelheads. His goal was his first, and it came at 15:45 of the first period. Assisting on the goal were Tyler Spurgeon and Weston Tardy.
After a scoreless second period, Mark Derlago netted a power play goal to put the Steelheads on top for good. At 5:57 of the third period, a power play goal from Derlago was assisted by McCutcheon and Mark Stuart as Derlago cut toward the front of the goal, and the puck rolled behind Stockton netminder Andrew Perugini.
With the third period winding down, Evan Barlow scored his first professional goal, and empty netter, for the Steelheads at 19:24. Adam Huxley and McCutcheon picked up the assists on the goal.
Rejean Beauchemin’s record improved to 1-0-0 with the win, as he stopped 20 Thunder shots. Perugini falls to 0-1-0 with the loss; he stopped 41 of 43 shots on the evening. Perugini also did not allow the Steelheads’ Mathieu Tousignant to score on a penalty shot in the third period; Tousignant tried to shoot high, and misfired over the cage.
4,367 fans witnessed tonight’s Steelheads victory on opening night.