Game Preview: Shock Travel To Stockton To Begin Home-And-Home Series

The Oceanside Shock open their second weekend of FPHL action with a home-and-home back-to-back series against the Stockton Thunder. The weekend begins with Stockton’s home opener, taking place at the Adventist Health Arena in Stockton on Saturday night with a 6:11pm scheduled face-off. The game will be able to be viewed on the Stockton Thunder YouTube channel, youtube.com/@stocktonhockey. The two teams will drive down I-99 to Oceanside for a Sunday 5pm return meeting at Frontwave Arena.

The Shock, Thunder and Fresno Falcons have all entered the Federal Prospects Hockey League (FPHL) as expansion teams, as part of the new Western Conference Frontier Division, which will also feature the Minnesota Northern Lights and the Topeka Scarecrows. Baton Rouge, Monroe, Mid-South and Columbus form the Delta Division to wrap up the West. The FPHL consists of 17 teams in four divisions, with all the teams chasing the league’s first-ever three-time consecutive champion, the Binghamton Black Bears, who have claimed the Commissioners Cup in 2024, 2025 and 2026. The Federal Prospects Hockey League is a professional single-A minor hockey league with member clubs across the United States. The FPHL is committed to growing the game, developing players and supporting professional hockey in passionate local communities. The league enters its 17th season in 2026-27.

Last time out, the Shock (1-2-0, 2 points) earned their first win in FPHL history, defeating Stockton (0-0-1, 1 point) in their first meeting of the season 5-4 (OT) on Sunday at Frontwave Arena. Vladimir Fadeev was the offensive hero for Oceanside, scoring the first hat trick in franchise history. His second goal of the game was a 6-on-4 power play tally which tied things up 3-3 with 2:09 remaining. His hat trick goal, scored 0:27 into sudden-death overtime, gave the Shock the win. Chris O’Shaughnessy earned his first victory in net, stopping 31-of-35 shots.

“We got some rest this week and got some aspects tightened up, and we’re really looking forward to getting things going again on Saturday,” said head coach Craig Carlyle.

The Shock and Thunder are about to get to know one another far too well, as this weekend they play their second and third games of a 17-game season series, by far the most against any common opponent. Oceanside and Stockton will play 29% of their season schedule (17-of-58) against one another. The Thunder franchise is returning to play for the first time since 2015, when they featured in the ECHL from 2005-15. This is Stockton’s first home game of the season.

“We’re gonna become really good friends or really good enemies,” said Carlyle of the extended season series against the Thunder. “It’s exciting to go into a place with a big rink having their first night, and we anticipate there will be a big crowd, and it will be exciting, but it’s just another game.”