San Diego ends Stockton’s home win streak after weekend split

Over the past two weeks, the Heat had won three of their past four games by playing a simple game where all three areas – offense, defense, and goaltending – were clicking, except for a three-minute spurt in Ontario that cost them two valuable points.

Although they gave up the first goal in each of the past three games, they stayed the course and played disciplined hockey. They had clawed their way to within five points of the final playoff spot. The offense had produced 18 goals while the defense limited their opponents to just 10 goals. In this stretch, the Heat beat San Jose for the first time this season and swept Colorado, going 6-1-0-1 on the season against the Eagles.

This past weekend the Heat hosted the third place San Diego Gulls with a chance to move closer to fourth place. The mission for the weekend was three points at a minimum – a sweep would really vault the Heat in both the standing and in confidence.

This was the tale of two games. On Mardi Gras Friday, Stockton was down 1-0 within the first 180 seconds and allowed a second goal with just over five minutes left in the first. On Saturday’s Star Wars Night, they followed the same recipe by allowing the first two goals, this time 15 seconds apart. That’s the only similarity between the two games; they were down by two in the first period.

On Friday they mounted a comeback, sparked by a driving goal by Tyler Graovac, who fired a shot top shelf while being hooked on the play. On Saturday, they laid back and took it. On Friday, even though the Heat trailed after the first period, they were controlling the play, firing 22 shots on net after one. On Saturday, they had a total of 20 shots on net in the entire game. On Friday, the team played simple and fast and won, going away 5-2 on a three-point night from Dillon Dube (1-2) and goals from Juuso Valimaki, Buddy Robinson, and a shortie from Glenn Gawdin. On Saturday, they were slow, sloppy, and lifeless while being blanked 3-0 in front of the one of the largest crowds of the season (6,434).

On Friday, Stockton’s passes were crisp, shorter, and north/south. They hustled to the puck and created turnovers. On Saturday, the Heat reverted back to drop passes to nobody, rink-wide east/west passes that were behind players, and turned the puck over too much. Valimaki tried three separate times to thread the needle with a pass through traffic that resulted in a turnover instead of skating the puck out of the zone, which is what the Gulls were giving him.

On Friday, Stockton continued to fire the puck (43 SOG) at Gulls’ mule Kevin Boyle and beat him five times. On Saturday, they never tested Jeff Glass. Of the 20 shots on net, they may had had one or two high-danger shots. When a team plays dump and chase hockey, they need to do both parts – dump the puck deep and chase it into the zone. Saturday, the Heat only dumped – they forgot to chase. Sending one forward into the zone against four defenders does not constitute chasing the puck.

A themed recap of the weekend: Friday was all beignets, beads, and hurricanes; Saturday was the Dark Side and Darth Vader. The worst part about Saturday was San Diego did not play well either, except during a 15-second stretch that netted their two first-period tallies. Four points were in sight but the Heat neglected to use the force to succeed in their mission to extend their home win streak to five games. They played like they had a Fat Tuesday hangover.

To make matters worse, Tucson and Colorado, the two teams the Heat are chasing, went to overtime on Saturday, so after the dust settled, the Heat lost ground in the playoff chase, trailing fourth place Colorado by seven points. In a league that has seen double-digit win streaks from the likes of San Diego and Bakersfield, there is still time for that push, but Stockton cannot afford another stinker like Saturday night.

Post-game quotes can be found here and here.

The one constant throughout these past six games has been Jon Gillies. I have been very critical of the young netminder over the past few years (what???), but he has made a lot of critical saves during this recent stretch and kept his team in the game. He started to play more on top of his crease, bigger, and his rebound control has greatly improved over this stretch, something I have not seen since in two years. In his past eight games, he has gone 5-3-0-0 with a 0.925 SV% and a 2.39 GAA. If this Gillies was here the entire year, the Heat would be in a playoff spot.

The defense has also stepped up during these past few weeks. Even with Saturday’s lackluster team performance, this group has started to help their goalie. They still allow too many shots on net (just under 32 a game over the past eight games) but they have been limiting the amount of followup shots by clearing the crease of players and pucks. Like with Gillies, if this squad started the season playing like this, Stockton would be in a playoff position.

For everyone that continues to state that Stockton is “just for development” and that the impact of the AHL playoffs is overhyped, NHL.com produced an article about how last year’s Calder Cup run by the Texas Stars is benefiting the Dallas Stars this year. It states that playoff hockey assists in the development of these young players and provides the organization with a winning culture.