Tucson, AZ. – Eddie Lack made 23 saves in his Heat debut, helping backstop the Heat over the Tucson Roadrunners 4-2. Marek Hrivik scored two goals, one on the power play in the first period to tie the game up and sealed the win with his empty netter in the final moments, and also contributed an assist on the go ahead goal in the third period scored by Emile Poirier. For the third time this season the Heat failed to score the first goal of the game, as the Roadrunners scored just 10 seconds into a power-play chance courtesy of Nick Merkley, however, the Heat turned things around in the second period with some crisp passing and timely saves from Lack, which eventually led to the Heat pulling away in the third with Poirier’s marker and Rasmus Andersson’s insurance tally. The Heat are now 1-2-0-0 on their current six-game road swing. The Heat continue that road swing Thursday, November 30 as they visit the Bakersfield Condors for a morning, 10:30 a.m. start, followed up by another meeting with Bakersfield at 7:00 p.m. on Friday night to kick off December. The road swing concludes on Wednesday, December 6 in San Jose against the Barracuda at 7:00 p.m. with the Heat returning home for Sing 4 Santa and Mark Jankowski Bobblehead Night on Saturday, December 9 at 6:00 p.m. Get your holiday shopping done right now and purchase a Heat Holiday Pack, featuring Lombo’s Naughty List, Klimmer’s Holiday Hat Trick, Mangiapane’s Gingerbread Special, and a New Year’s Eve Pack. Order yours today by visiting stocktonheat.com/holidays or call the Heat Front Office at 209.373.1500.

BOX SCORE

HIGHLIGHTS

SCORING SUMMARY

1st Period

Tucson Goal: F Nick Merkley (11) shot from top of right circle goes through traffic and beats goaltender underneath his blocker and above his pad (Strome, Capobianco assists), (PP), 9:26

HEAT GOAL: F Marek Hrivik (5) scramble after faceoff sees puck under a pair of skates which is dug free and shot past goalie on his blocker-hand side (Foo, Klimchuk assists), (PP) 17:56

Shots: STK – 9 | TUC – 9

2nd Period

No Goals

Shots: STK – 9 | TUC – 5

3rd Period

HEAT GOAL: F Emile Poirier (2) turnover in the neutral zone leads to odd man rush in offensive zone with forward banging home one-timer in the high slot through five-hole of goalie (Hrivik, Cramarossa assists), 2:33

HEAT GOAL: D Rasmus Andersson (2) blast from right point beats goalie high blocker side (Unassisted), 6:23

Tucson Goal: F Dylan Strome (8) initial deke is blocked by goalie but rebound pops into the air and knocked past the goalie (Merkley, Crouse assists), 18:00

HEAT GOAL: F Marek Hrivik (6) rushes puck through neutral zone, chipping puck over diving defender and shooting puck into empty net (Unassisted), (EN), 19:16

Shots: STK – 10 | TUC – 11

GOALIES

W: Eddie Lack (25 shots, 23 saves)

L: Adin Hill (27 shots, 24 saves)



NOTABLE STATISTICS

Three Stars: 1- Marek Hrivik (2 goals, 1 assist) 2- Eddie Lack (23 saves) 3- Nick Merkley (TUC) (1 goal, 1 assist)

Final Shots: STK – 28 | TUC – 25

Power Plays: STK – 1/7 | TUC – 1/6

Eddie Lack wins his debut in a Stockton Heat sweater, his first AHL win since January 27 while with the Charlotte Checkers against Manitoba

Lack is now 58-46-8 in his AHL career (115 games played)

Marek Hrivik (2 goals, 1 assist) records his second multi-goal game of the year, sixth multi-point game of the season, and first three-point night of the year

Rasmus Andersson (1 goal) scores his first game winning goal of his career and now leads all Heat defensemen with 11 points (2-9-11)

Brett Findlay played in his 100th AHL game of his career

The Heat snapped their longest losing skid of the season at two-games

Stockton has power-play goals in back-to-back games and in nine of their last 11 games dating back to October 27

The Heat failed to score the first goal of the contest for just the third time this season, having scored first in 15 of 18 games this season and are now 1-1-0-1 when allowing the first goal including 1-0-0-1 in games they allow the first goal on the road

The Heat won their first game of the year after being tied heading into the third period, now going 1-3-0-0 when tied after 40 minutes

Former Heat goaltender David Rittich earns his first NHL win in his first NHL start as the Calgary Flames beat the Colorado Avalanche on the road 3-2. Rittich made 24-saves in his first NHL win

QUOTES

“It is always fun to play. I haven’t played that much this year and I am trying to get my legs going here, but it was fun tonight.” – Eddie Lack on his performance tonight

“They are a good team. Strome is a really good player and he is one you have to keep your eyes on the whole time, but I just try to play my game, keep it simple, hold a lot of pucks and I am happy we got the win.” – Lack on just focusing on his game tonight in the 4-2 win

“Last night they forechecked us all game and we didn’t really get it out of our end, but tonight we put pucks in on them and they didn’t seem to get out of their end.” – Andersson on the big difference between the two games this weekend

“I picked it up from the wall and it was just one of those shots I just got all of it and it went post and in. I had one post, one cross-bar and a breakaway chance, so it was nice to finally get one in the game. Felt like things were bouncing against me, but that was one of those shots that found it’s way to get in.” – Andersson on his 2nd goal of the season

“He was unreal back there. He made some huge saves, especially on their power plays. He played a really strong game in there.” – Andersson on Eddie Lack’s debut in net

“I think a lot of guys felt way better tonight than we did last night. I think last night they were skating really hard on their forecheck and we couldn’t keep up with them, but obviously tonight we were fresher and it showed up on the score.” – Marek Hrivik on the improvement from last night

“Obviously when you have an NHL goalie behind you it makes you feel way more comfortable making plays and decisions in your defensive zone and he was big for us and he held us in the game.” – Hrivik on the confidence he has in Eddie Lack

“I thought Eddie made some saves for us early on and it allowed us to get our feet under us. I liked our second period I thought we played under control and it was important for us to get to that point tonight.” – Head Coach Ryan Huska on Eddie Lack’s Stockton Heat debut

“I think we did a better job in a few different areas than we did the prior night. They have a really good hockey team, so you have to be ready to play and ready to skate when you come here to play in particular.” – Huska on the team’s improved effort from last night

“Scoring a goal on your power play is a big thing, but I think the Poirier goal was the most important one for us tonight. When we got that goal it felt like it gave us a little pep in our step from that point on.” – Huska on Poirier’s huge goal turning the game around

“I thought [Eddie Lack] was really good. The first one that there was a lot of traffic in front of him. He made some big saves and he provided that calming influence for our guys on the backend. Whenever there was a breakdown he was there to make the save.” – Huska on Lack’s 23-save winning effort

“These long weeks aren’t the best, but this gives us an opportunity to get a couple days of rest with travel tomorrow, but then we have some thing to work on there are areas that we need to improve on.” – Huska on the week ahead leading into game with Bakersfield

NEXT HOME GAME

STOCKTON HEAT vs. Tucson Roadrunners

Saturday, December 9 @ Stockton Arena

Sing 4 Santa // Hockey Night in Stockton presented by Budweiser // First 1,000 fans receive a Mark Jankowski Bobblehead // Toy Drive

Heat Zone Pregame Party @ 4:00 p.m., Doors @ 5:00 p.m., Puck drop @ 6:00 p.m.

For tickets call 209.373.1500 // stocktonheat.com