Stockton Heat Update: Hot Hrivik

Since our last update the Stockton Heat have gone 3-2-2 which brought their overall record up to 14-8-3. The Heat currently sit third in the AHL’s Pacific Division with a 0.620 points percentage, behind Tuscon at 0.630 and Texas at 0.625. Stockton has lost their last three games in a row after winning seven of their previous ten games.

The Heat last played on Saturday, falling 4-1 to the San Diego Gulls on the second half of a back-to-back. The previous night they lost to the Ontario Reign 4-3 in overtime.

Marek Hrivik has had a strong campaign with the Heat, registering 9 goals and 17 assists for 26 points in 23 games. He’s been hot as of late, tallying 3 goals and 4 assists in the last five games. Hrivik has been consistent all season long thus far, and continues to warrant a shot with the Flames if they didn’t have other players unnecessarily filling roster spots (but that’s a piece for another day).

Andrew Mangiapane has cooled off after his hot start to the season, only scoring two goals and four assists in the last ten games. He still leads the team with 27 points in 25 games. He’s also well on pace to eclipse his 2016-17 totals of 41 points in 66 games.

It’s likely that part of the reason Mangiapane has slowed down is that two of his linemates at the start of the year are now on the Flames in Mark Jankowski and Garnet Hathaway.

Jon Gillies has done pretty well in the Heat net since becoming the #1 after David Rittich’s call up to Calgary. Gillies is at 8-6-2 on the year with two shutouts. His GAA is 2.45 and his sv% is 0.920, both of which are improvements on last year’s numbers. For those interested, Eddie Lack is 1-1-1 in three starts for the Heat with a 2.61 GAA and 0.919 sv%.

Here’s a look at the last five games for the Heat and the next five

Last Five:

Dec 6 Stockton 6 @ San Jose 0

Dec 9 Tuscon 2 @ Stockton 5

Dec 13 Stockton 3 @ San Diego 5

Dec 15 Stockton 3 @ Ontario 4

Dec 16 Stockton 1 @ San Diego 4

Next Five:

Dec 22 Stockton @ Tuscon

Dec 23 Stockton @ Tuscon

Dec 28 Stockton @ San Jose

Dec 29 Stockton @ Ontario

Dec 31 Bakersfield @ Stockton

Leading Scorers

Goals: 10 - Andrew Mangiapane, Morgan Klimchuk, 9 - Marek Hrivik, 8 - Hunter Shinkaruk

Assists: 17 - Andrew Mangiapane, Marek Hrivik, 13 - Rasmus Andersson, Tyler Wotherspoon, 12 - Oliver Kylington

Points: 27 - Andrew Mangiapane, 26 - Marek Hrivik, 18 - Morgan Klimchuk

The Heat finish off a seven game road trip before heading home for eight of nine games in Stockton.