Game 53: San Diego Gulls @ Stockton Heat – March 2

Looking to avenge their disappointing effort from the night before, Eakins shook the line up by scratching Kevin Roy and reinserting Matt Berry. Ben Street, Josh Mahura and Jake Dotchin were still out with injuries. Jeff Glass got the start over Kevin Boyle in the back to back.

San Diego started out strong, getting some very dangerous chances early. The first of which was a shorthanded chance courtesy of Justin Kloos on an individual effort, he beat the Heat defense down low, cut across the front of the net, outwaited the Stockton net-minder Jon Gillies but hit the post when he finally did take the shot.

Moments later on a Gulls power play Chase De Leo was similarly denied but this time by Gillies himself as he received a pass all alone right in front of the Heat net but after making a move in an attempt to fake out the Maine native, the goaltender managed to snag the puck out of the air with his glove.

San Diego did eventually break through however; as Sam Steel came down on a two on one with Chase De Leo – looking off his winger to fire a hard shot home top shelf to open the scoring.

Just seconds later, on the very next shift, Adam Cracknell received a pass in front from Corey Tropp behind the net and out-waited Gillies to put the Gulls up 2-0.

San Diego almost got another with less than a minute left but took the 2-0 lead to the first intermission and tied in shots 8-8.

The middle frame did not feature any scoring for either team and far less dangerous chances overall as both sides became more stringent with allowing shots in close, there was one flurry at the midway point of the period courtesy of the Kossila line but Gillies frustrated the Gulls on some of their bast chances of the second set of twenty. San Diego headed to the second intermission still holding the 2-0 lead and increasing their shot total by another 18, doubling up the heat 26-12 after forty minutes.

Stockton attempted to revert momentum to start the final period but San Diego were tight on defense, preventing any dangerous chances through the first eight minutes. Back to back penalties to Sam Steel and then Justin Kloos gave the Heat a chance to get back in the game; but the lone San Diego aggressive fore-checker wrecked havoc with the Heat breakout and they only generated a couple of chances as the second of the back to back minors expired.

Matt Berry did not help his case for staying in the line up by taking yet another penalty a minute later and the Gulls had perhaps their best chance of the final twenty by picking off a pass at the point and coming in two on one but again Gillies made an amazing save to keep it 2-0. The Heat seemed to wake up then and got some decent shots on Glass but through more hard work San Diego were able to kill the minor.

The Heat pulled Gillies for the extra attacker with under three minutes left and among the action that followed Anrej Sustr and Lomberg drew matching minors so that teams skated at 4 on 4 for the remaining forty seconds, Sam Steel intercepted a final 15 seconds left zone entry and shot it down the end for the empty net goal.

Great team effort win overall, defense first philosophy and aggressive fore-checking really threw the Heat off their game. San Diego only allowed 20 shots on net for Jeff Glass’ 6th career shutout.