Heat Post-Game: the Heat fall for the second time this week
2 years ago
The Stockton Heat continued their road trip on Friday night as they headed to San Diego to play the Gulls. This was already their third of four games this week and it, unfortunately, did not go the way they would have hoped. A quiet night for the Heat scoring resulted in a 4-1 loss at the hands of the Gulls.
One-sided scoring
Not a lot of action to start this game. Neither side was able to put up a goal and the Heat were called for a couple of penalties but killed them off without any damage done. Stockton finished the period ahead in shots 10-7.
The second period was where things started to get out of hand. It all started with a slap shot from Gulls forward, Hunter Drew at the 5:32 mark of the second period. The Heat got caught on their heels a bit and left quite a bit of room for the Gulls to work with.
About five minutes later, the Gulls struck again. This goal was a result of a Heat zone faceoff loss that generated some traffic in front of the net that at least partially if not fully screened Adam Werner. Stockton was able to get one back before the end of the period, however. It was once again Eetu Tuulola who scored for the second game in a row with just 10 seconds to go in the period.
Jakob Pelletier and Matthew Phillips were up on the rush with him and set him up for pretty much a sure goal. Matthew Phillips also picked up a point in back-to-back games with this assist.
Despite being behind in the scoreboard, the Heat were within reach of the game only down one and ahead in shots 27-16. The comeback would end there unfortunately and the damage from the other end of the ice would only get more substantial.
The Gulls scored at 7:51 into the third then again at 14:18. Two more goals that the Gulls had quite a lot of open ice and not a lot of Heat skaters in their way to make things tough on them. Mitch Love opted to try and make something happen by pulling Werner with just over four minutes to go in regulation. Nothing would come of it and the Gulls would take the win on home ice.
Bad night for the back up?
It was quite a shaky night for Adam Werner. He wasn’t exactly getting peppered with shots, stopping 21 of 25. His save percentage was .840 and his GAA was 4.34 for this game. Not quite the type of stat line that wins games very often. Quite a few of Werner’s games this year have not been stellar but his team has found a way to win when their scoring was at their best. On the season, Werner’s GAA sits at 3.10 and his save percentage is at .880.
When your other goaltending option is one of the best in the league in Dustin Wolf, it can feel like night and day when the backup is in net. Nonetheless, it is necessary at times. It made sense for him to start in this game as their next game against the Ontario Reign is the tougher opponent out of the two. It is not all bad. To his credit, Werner was the netminder in Stockton’s Wednesday night win against the Tucson Roadrunners. There is still work and development to be done and hopefully with some more playing time, the team behind him can anticipate what type of game to expect with a different goalie in net and adjust accordingly.
Tough opponent coming up
The Ontario Reign will be the next challenge for the Heat. They continue their fifth of their seven-game road trip later this weekend as they head to southern California. The Reign have consistently stayed right behind the Heat in the Pacific Division standings and the last time they faced each other, their series resulted in a split. Their third match-up of the year comes this Sunday at 4:00 p.m. MT and will show who is worthy of the edge in their season series.
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