Heat Open Road Swing with Wild
December 21, 2018 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Stockton Heat News Release
Arena: Wells Fargo Arena
Date: Friday, Dec. 21, 2018
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Broadcast: Spreaker, iHeartRadio & AHLTV at 4:45 p.m.
For the live, in-game tweets, follow @AHLHeat. Stay tuned at the end of the game for the Chase Chevrolet Big Moment of the Game with your chance to win an autographed puck from Tyler Graovac.
TONIGHT
The Heat hit the road for the first of four-straight away from Stockton Arena, playing the first of two at Iowa on Friday. Stockton looks to shake itself out of a 1-3-1 funk, the latest an overtime loss at the hands of the Bakersfield Condors in a game in which the Heat trailed for zero seconds of game time.
Friday's meeting will be just the third time Stockton and Iowa have played one another, the second time ever that the Heat will play against the Wild in Des Moines and the first game between the two clubs this season. Stockton and Iowa will battle again Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena to close out the weekend set.
GILLIES IN GOAL
Jon Gillies had his best game of the season on Wednesday, turning away 39 of 42 shots faced against Bakersfield. The netminder was particularly busy during the third period, running up 15 saves in the final 20 minutes of regulation to help the Heat push the game to overtime and earn a point against the Condors. Gillies has played between the pipes in four of the last five games for the Heat, missing only the December 15 meeting with Bakersfield while he was recalled to the Flames.
DUBE'S FIRST
Dillon Dube lit the lamp for the first time in his brief 11-game AHL tenure on Wednesday, poking home a loose puck to put the Heat up 2-1 in the second period. The Flames' second-round pick in the 2016 NHL Draft started his professional career with 20 games in Calgary before joining the Heat, where he has seen increased ice time as well as roles on special teams. Dube now has five points (1g, 4a) and is a plus-3 in six games with Stockton this season.
COMING AND GOING
The Calgary Flames announced a trio of transactions on Thursday, recalling forwards Buddy Robinson and Ryan Lomberg and assigning Kerby Rychel to the Heat. The call-up is the first for Robinson with the Flames, while Lomberg already had logged three games with Calgary earlier in the year. Rychel returns to the Heat as the club's leading scorer on the year, entering Friday's game with 21 points (13g, 8a) in 25 games. Reinforcements from the ECHL came on Friday, the Heat adding a pair of forwards by recalling Jordan Ernst from Kansas City and signing Mike Szmatula from Adirondack to a PTO.
SLIM MARGINS
Wednesday's overtime contest against Bakersfield represents the fourth-straight one-goal game the Heat have played, the club going 1-2-1-0 in that span. The stretch offsets a hot start the Heat had in close games, Stockton now 7-3-2-0 on the year in one-goal contests. Much of the success in that record comes from games that go beyond regulation, Stockton 4-2 on the year when playing more than 60 minutes of hockey.
STRENGTH VERSUS STRENGTH
The Heat have enjoyed success in road games this year, going 7-6 away from Stockton Arena thus far. A big part of that has been the play on special teams, where the Heat boast the league's seventh-best road power play unit at 25-percent on the year, 12-for-48. This creates an intriguing special teams matchup with the Wild, who rank eighth in the AHL on the PK on home ice.
American Hockey League Stories from December 21, 2018
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