By: Phillip Torres and Kahlil Najar

DALY CITY-The San Francisco Bulls (11-15-2-1) hosted the Stockton Thunder (14-10-0-4) on Friday night at the Cow Palace. The paid crowd of 3,238 witnessed a very heated game between the two rivals from the Pacific West, as the game consisted of three brutal fights with two Thunder players being ejected from the game. Friday night’s contest was the first of five consecutive meetings between the San Francisco Bulls and the Stockton Thunder, and the Bulls took the early advantage in the five game set with a 5-2 victory on Friday night.The two teams will face off Saturday, Sunday and next Friday in Stockton, and then the fifth game will be played at the Cow Palace next Saturday January 4th.

The Bulls took the early lead with a first period goal from Adrian Foster at 14:56. Dean Ouellet and Steven Tarasuk earned the assists on the goal. The score was the lone goal by both teams as the score heading into the first intermission was 1-0 San Francisco.

Stockton scored the next two goals, one coming in the second and one in the third to take the 2-1 lead. Shawn Boutin and Corey Trivino were the two goal scorers for the Thunder.

San Francisco’s offensive surge started midway through the third period. Tyler Gron tied the game at two goals apiece with a at 11:27. Less than one minute later Jordan Morrison gave the Bulls the lead for good with a goal passed the glove side of goaltender Brian Foster as he skated behind the net. Brett Findlay and Gron assisted on the goal.

Luke Judson extended the Bulls lead with a slapshot to make it a 4-2 lead late. Foster and Kalvin Sagert assisted on the score. The final goal was scored by Morrison as he scored on an empty netter 19:22. Findlay and Ouellet earned the assists on the insurance goal.

Head coach Pat Curcio was very pleased with the performance of his team after the big victory against the Thunder. The head coach talked about it after the game.

“I’m very pleased with how the guys played. We’ve been talking about playing good five on five hockey and that’s what we did today,” Curcio said.

The Bulls will need to play great five in five hockey against Stockton in the remaining four games of the five game stretch. If the Bulls can win the remaining four games they would pull ahead of the Thunder in the standings and have sole possession of second place in the Pacific West Division.

The two rivals will meet again on Saturday night in Stockton. The puck will drop at 7:30 P.M.