Heat Post-Game: 10 Goals, Because Nine was Not Enough
2 years ago
While the Calgary Flames were losing their lead to the Sharks at the SAP Arena, the Stockton Heat were steamrolling the San Jose Barracuda at the Stockton Arena by a score of 10-1. This game was meant to be played back on Oct. 31 but due to league Covid-19 protocols within the San Jose organization, many of the Barracuda players were filling in for the NHL guys. They may have preferred to play in October as the Heat ended breaking their team record for goals in a single game and 14 Heat skaters found their way onto the scoresheet.
Bring out the hats
With a score that high, odds are some skaters are putting multiple goals on the board. Two in particular, earned themselves hat tricks on the night. Byron Froese and Glenn Gawdin. Matthew Phillips, who made his return from Covid protocol, was also right on their heels with two goals and an assist on the night. Here’s a look at Froese’s rocket of a shot that earned the Heat’s fifth goal of the night.
Game at a glance
The Barracuda had just over eight and a half minutes of peace in this game before Matthew Phillips opened up scoring 8:35 into the first with a perfectly placed backhand shot. Assists went to Jakob Pelletier and Nick DeSimone.
The Heat would score two more times in the first with both of them coming off the stick of Glenn Gawdin.
By the end of the first period, Jakob Pelletier, Glenn Gawdin, Matthew Phillips and Nick DeSimone were already at multi-point games.
The second period continued with the same momentum with four more Heat goals coming from Eetu Tuulola, Byron Froese, Matthew Phillips and Byron Froese again in that order. In the third, Connor Zary made it 8-0 before the Barracuda got one back just past the midway point of the period. That would be their only goal of the night and yet, that was still not quite enough for the Heat to wrap up their scoring. Froese and Gawdin saw the opportunity for hat tricks and both achieved that in the last five minutes of the game.
The Barracuda unsurprisingly made a goaltending change after the fifth goal and Dustin Wolf sat back and watched the shooting clinic take place on the other end of the rink and was credited for the win. Shots ended at 39-24 in favour of the Heat.
Distribution of points
There’s a lot to report in the points column after a win like this. Here are the skaters that contributed to the abundance of points.
- Connor Mackey – 2 Assists
- Greg Moro – 2 Assists
- Ilya Solovyov – 1 Assist
- Nick DeSimone – 2 Assists
- Matthew Phillips – 2 Goals, 1 Assist
- Byron Froese – 3 Goals
- Glenn Gawdin – 3 Goals, 1 Assist
- Martin Pospisil – 1 Assist
- Eetu Tuulola – 1 Goal
- Walker Duehr – 1 Assist
- Luke Philp – 1 Assist
- Andy Welinski – 2 Assists
- Connor Zary – 1 Goal
- Jakob Pelletier – 3 Assists
Not quite their full roster, but pretty close.
Juuso’s on the move
Questions swirled around Juuso Valimacki’s involvement in this game and rightfully so. He was not playing for the Heat and was actually catching the Flames game from the press box in San Jose. He was called back up to the Flames on Tuesday officially after playing in two games for the Heat this past weekend. He earned three assists in those pair of games.
Unforgettable night for Ruzicka
Another Heat connected player in San Jose for the big club on Tuesday was Adam Ruzicka. Except Ruzicka cracked the lineup. Not only did he get to play his second NHL game of the 2021-22 season, but he also earned his first NHL goal with the Flames with assists coming from Chris Tanev and Brad Richardson.
Ruzicka has played in 13 games with the Heat this year and sits at third in team scoring with 10 goals and six goals for a 1.23 point per game average. Here’s a look at his big goal.
What’s next
The Heat will hit the road this weekend to face the Tucson Roadrunners on Friday and Saturday night. The Roadrunners surely have some game film to watch as the Heat continue to be a tough team to get past in the AHL. The last time these two played was the opening games of the season where the Heat fell 1-0 in overtime and won 3-2 the following night. The Heat are a little more settled into their season now and showed how quickly a game against them can get out of hand. This weekend will show if the Roadrunners are up to the challenge. Puck drop for both games this weekend is at 7 p.m. MT.
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