PREVIEW: Gulls, Heat Face Off In Stockton
Mar 8, 2022By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls are ready to turn up the temperature as they continue their franchise-record eight-game road trip, squaring off against the Stockton Heat tonight at Stockton Arena (6:30 p.m. PT; TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
The Gulls carry a 21-24-4-3 overall record against the Heat, including 9-14-2-2 in Stockton. San Diego is 2-3-0-0 in its season series with the Heat after winning their last two games (3-2 on Jan. 19 and 4-1 on Jan. 7) against the American Hockey League’s first-place team, with both victories coming on the road.
"We’re a good matchup against that team," Gulls assistant coach Max Talbot said. "I think we can play the type of hockey and we started to believe. Our last game down there was a good example. I think we played one of our best games of the season. It was straight up adversity and we played well so we have that in the back of our mind and we’re going for a big game."
The Gulls are coming off back-to-back losses to the Colorado Eagles (7-4 on Mar. 4 and 4-1 on Mar. 5), but the team is focused on the how much they grew through those contests. One budding aspect of San Diego’s game is the power play, as the team converted on 50% of their chances on the man-advantage (5-for-10) over its last three games.
"Our special teams were okay, but turnovers at one point against a defensive-minded team killed us a little bit so there’s a couple things we worked on today," Talbot said following a recent practice. "But we have to feel good about where we’re going as a team. You know, sometimes you look at those games and you can be all, ‘We lost the last two,’ but again, it’s about progression and I think we’re doing that right now."
Alex Limoges stomped out the Eagles’ chance for a 4-0 shutout with a third period power-play goal (PPG) in the team’s most recent loss. The goal marks Limoges’ seventh PPG of the season, which ties him for the second most power-play goals among AHL rookies and ties him with Danny O’Regan (7-6=13) for most on the Gulls.
The Gull with the most power-play points over the last three games is defenseman Nikolas Brouillard, who notched 0-4=4 assists on the man advantage over his last three contests. Brouillard is riding a career-best four-game assist streak (0-5=5) and continues to lead the Gulls in assists and scoring (8-20=28). Additionally, the blueliner’s eight goals rank him tied for fifth among AHL defensemen.
Vinni Lettieri also tallied his fair share of power-play points in the last three games, scoring 1-2=3 points. The veteran forward continues his impressive second half, entering tonight with 2-11=13 points in his last 10 games.
However, this offensive breakthrough only matters to the Gulls in terms of how well they can replicate it moving forward.
"I think more than anything it’s our consistency," Gulls defenseman Brogan Rafferty said. "We want to play a hard, game, be hard to play against, get the puck behind their defensemen, finish our checks and make it hard for them to break out of their zone. I think we had really good moments of that this weekend against Colorado, who is a really good team. I would say just be more consistent in that aspect of our play and we’ll be heading in the right direction."
The consistency and the strength of San Diego’s power-play will certainly be put to the test by the Heat. Not only does Stockton lead the AHL on the penalty kill (87.3%), the team boasts an impressive home penalty kill, leading all clubs at 90.5%.
The Gulls penalty kill is up to the task, killing 20 of their last 22 opponent’s power plays for a 90.9% success rate. Making it more impressive – all those games are part of this extended road swing. It’s a point of pride for San Diego, who may need to lean on their special teams to shut down an explosive Stockton team.
"Well, obviously we know they’re a really good team," Rafferty said. "They have a lot of guys who can put the puck in the back of the net so we take pride in our defensive zone. Going into that weekend, I feel like we’re always just overprepared and we take pride in shutting down their top-end guys and kind of being the underdogs a little bit in that sense, if you look at the record and the standings like that. We take pride in our defensive zone and just go out there and do our best, and I think we’re really opportunistic against that team."
The Heat are led by a trio of 40-point scorers - Matthew Phillips (20-28=48), Jakob Pelletier (16-25=41) and Glenn Gawdin (12-28=40) - that played a huge role in earning Stockton its 31-9-4-1 season record. Additionally, Phillips provided the primary assist for the overtime-winning goal in the Heat’s last game, which ended in a 4-3 victory for Stockton.
Nonetheless, this game could simply boil down to a battle of the goaltenders.
The other assist on the Heat’s overtime winner came from rookie goaltender Dustin Wolf. The netminder holds a 2.33 goals-against average (GAA) and a .923 save percentage (SV%) to rank second among rookie netminders.
Gulls goaltender Lukas Dostal, who generated offense of his own with the first goalie goal in Anaheim Ducks club history (at both the NHL and AHL levels), is ranked fifth in the AHL among first-year goaltenders with a 2.70 GAA and 0.913 SV%.
"We’re a good team on the road," Talbot said. "These are the type of games that we need to fill in a mindset. We need to know that we’re about to win them and going to win against Colorado also down there Wednesday was big because it was the only team we didn’t beat in our division and we beat them on the road. It’s positive knowing we can compete against any team in this division and progress towards playoffs."