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Cal is "Heeting" Up Again. 1st Glens Falls Shutout!

December 6, 2013 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Adirondack Phantoms News Release


Cal Heeter turned in a 24-save masterpiece to record his second career shutout, and his first in Glens Falls, in a 3-0 Phantoms' victory over the Hartford Wolf Pack on Friday night.

The 25-year-old from St. Louis stopped everything the Wolf Pack threw his way and made a handful of spectacular stops including a terrific sliding save on Sean O'Donnell on the back-door of a rebound with less than five minutes to go in the second period for probably his best save of the night.

Adirondack needed the big performance. The Phantoms held a slim 1-0 lead several minutes into the third period in the tightly contested battle. Tye McGinn scored 3:11 into the game to get the Phantoms a big boost early. Brandon Alderson's power play goal in the third helped give Adirondack a little breathing room. And Chris VandeVelde sealed the victory with a late empty-net tally for his team-leading seventh goal of the season.

Cal is "Heeting" up again. In early November, the second-year pro out of Ohio State had a tremendous four-game stretch n which he stopped 124 out of 127 shots for a monstrous save percentage of .976. And he's doing almost exactly the same in this latest three-game run with a .973 save percentage stopping 71 out of 73 shots faced. Both of his hottest stretches have included a shuotut.

Jason Missiaen was the hard-luck loser on the Hartford side. The big 6'8" tall netminder for the Pack tried to match Heeter save for save but was not able to keep up. Both goalies made big stops in the exciting contest.

While Cal Heeter stole the show, it was also a solid response game for the entire Phantoms team who had an overall strong showing following their Wednesday night 1-0 loss against Bridgeport.

"I thought the performance was really good," Phantoms head coach Terry Murray said. "There was a lot of good things that happened in the first period for both teams. I thought the tempo was really good. It was really entertaining--up and down hockey. Some really good scoring chances on both sides. And the goaltenders were making some stops. Thankful we got the first goal of the game. Was a good play by Newbury to find McGinn and to get the first goal of the game tonight was clearly important."

Adirondack worked its record back to the .500 mark with the key divisional victory and now stand at 10-10-2. Hartford falls out of their tie in the standings with the Phantoms as the Wolf Pack fall to 9-11-2. The whole team was aware that this was a key game in the standings and that included the first goal scorer of the night.

" It's huge," Tye McGinn said. "I think they had the identical record to us, going into the game and we're two points up on them now which is huge. And if we'd lost, we'd have been 2 behind and it's basically a 4 point game so it's definitely a big game."

McGinn's fifth goal of the season came just 3:11 into the game. Jason Akeson found Kris Newbury rushing right up the middle into the Hartford zone and, instead of shooting himself, flipped the puck to McGinn on the left-wing who found plenty enough daylight on the short side against Missiaen to pot the wrister.

"We needed to get a goal there," McGinn said. "Especially, early. So it was good to get that one and we could kind of calm down after that one went in and start focusing on playing our game."

Both teams found iron in the second period as Adirondack's 1-0 advantage barely held. Brandon Manning's slapshot through traffic on the power play hit the base of the right post just behind Missiaen's left-skate and bounced out. A couple minutes later, a Hartford drive from the right circle would clang off the outside of the iron.

Petr Straka weaved into the zone on the power play in the third period and eventually the puck worked around to Mark Alt on the point who found Brandon Alderson up high whose blast went off the left leg of Missiaen but still had enough push to it to dribble through. Alderson's third of the season is also his first goal since October.

Chris VandeVelde finished the game with about 1:30 to go with an empty-net goal from the blue-line on the left boards. He was tripped from behind by a desperate Aaron Johnson trying to chase him down but VandeVelde had gotten the shot off just a moment before he went crashing into the boards.

Cal is "Heeting" up again. In early November, the second-year pro out of Ohio State had a tremendous four-game stretch n which he stopped 124 out of 127 shots for a monstrous save percentage of .976. And he's doing almost exactly the same in this latest three-game run with a .973 save percentage stopping 71 out of 73 shots faced. Both of his hottest stretches have included a shuotut.

The Phantoms edged out the Wolf Pack in total shots 25-24. Hartford was 0-for-3 on the power play. The Phantoms were 1-for-2 in the fairly clean game that featured only a small number of minor penalties. Adirondack is 1-1-1 against Hartford this season and Game 4 of the 10-game season series will be next Friday, December 13 at the XL Center in Hartford, CT.

The Phantoms conclude their four-game homestand as well as their busy stretch of seven home games in 16 days when they host the Utica Comets on Saturday at 7:00. Fans are encouraged to bring their stuffed animal donation to benefit the Salvation Army of Glens Falls. It will be raining teddy bears inside the GFCC when the fans throw their stuffed animal donations following the Phantoms first goal. Saturday is also Phantoms Poster Night for the first 2,000 fans presented by Glens Falls Printing and Team Autograph Night in Heritage Hall after the game featuring all the Phantoms players. Call the Phantoms for tickets at 518-480-3355.

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