Stockton Sunday: Gillies Amazing in Victories

As Christmas draws closer, the 2016-17 season has thus far been a successful one for the Heat. They lead their division and their injection of youth has done wonders. Speaking of youth, Oliver Kylington will soon be departing for Montreal/Toronto for the World Junior Hockey Championship.

With only one game between now and Christmas, next week’s Stockton Sunday will be pushed to Wednesday Dec 28 before returning to the normal schedule.

Last Week’s Games:

Wednesday: Stockton Heat 5 @ Ontario Reign (Los Angeles) 4

The Heat jumped out to a lead early and kept piling on, leading 5-1 by the end of the second period. The Reign made it close eventually cutting down the lead to just one goal with two minutes to go but couldn’t tie it up. Mark Jankowski, Morgan Klimchuk, Kenney Morrison, Matt Frattin, and Oliver Kylington all scored in the game while David Rittich made 26 saves on 30 shots.

A full game recap can be found here

Friday: Stockton Heat 5 @ San Diego Gulls (Anaheim) 3

Again, the Heat jumped out to a big lead early, finding themselves up 4-0 before San Diego clawed back. The story of the game was Jon Gillies who made a career-high 44 saves on 47 shots. Matt Frattin had two goals while Jamie Devane, Hunter Shinkaruk, and Andrew Mangiapane also scored. As you can see below, Shinkaruk’s goal was a one handed beauty. Linden Vey had 3 assists in the victory as well.

A full game recap can be found here

Saturday: Stockton Heat 3 @ San Diego Gulls 1

Well if setting his career high in saves the night before was something special, Jon Gillies came out with an even better performance making 48 saves on 49 shots! In fact, the only Gulls goal came with 20 seconds left to spoil his perfect night. Morgan Klimchuk, Austin Carroll, and Hunter Shinkaruk scored for Stockton, but the story of the night again was Jon Gillies. Take a look at this beautiful breakaway save to keep Stockton up by 2 in the second.

A full game recap can be found here

This Week’s Games:

Tuesday: Stockton Heat @ San Jose Barracuda (San Jose)

Wed-Sunday: Christmas Break

Monday Dec 26: Stockton Heat @ San Jose Barracuda

Roster Moves:

Leading Scorers:

Goals: 9 – Morgan Klimchuk 8 – Linden Vey, Matt Frattin

Assists: 14 – Linden Vey, Rasmus Andersson 13 – Andrew Mangiapane

Points: 22 – Linden Vey 20 – Andrew Mangiapane

Check out our prospect of the week piece on Heat defender Rasmus Andersson here

Also check out this Sportsnet article on the successes of the Heat this year here

To recap, it was all Jon Gillies against San Diego, as he made a whopping 92 saves on 96 shots all in a 24 hour span. Perhaps not a good sign that the team is allowing that many shots, but Gillies bailed them out. Wow. Just Wow!

The Heat are now 16-6-2 on the season and in firm position of first place in the AHL’s Pacific Division as well as sitting in 4th place in the league. Stockton is on a three game win streak and are 7-1-1 in their last nine games. They have the 3rd highest GF/G at 3.54 and 2nd lowest GA/G at 2.42. The Heat continue to play solid hockey in all areas as they pass the ¹⁄₃ mark of their season.

We’ll be back on December 28 for the next Heat update!

by Michael MacGillivray