Heat Know Goals will Come with Hard Work

The Stockton Heat began their inaugural season with a 7-0 shutout of the Rockford IceHogs at Stockton Arena back on October 10th that really got the Heat off on the right foot.

Since then, however, the Heat have struggled to convert on their chances in the offensive zone, scoring only a single goal in each of their last three games.

The issue hasn’t necessarily been a lack of opportunities, rather a lack of capitalizing on those opportunities.

“I don’t think we need to change too much,” forward Emile Poirier said. “We have gotten our chances, we just have to put the puck in the net. We have to be simple and that’s really the key. We’re focusing on that in practice this week.”

Fellow forward and alternate captain Blair Riley agreed with Poirier, stating that generating offense has not been the issue and that the Heat simply need to trust in the system that is in place and not deter from the game plan so much when time’s get hard.

“I thought the first game on the road trip in Texas we played a really good game,” Riley said. “Unfortunately, we only had the one goal to show for it late. We had over 30 shots and generated a lot of offense. In San Antonio we had a good first period, but they got that late goal in the first and it kind of deflated a bit. After that we took too many chances instead of sticking to the system.”

Often times it’s the power play or penalty kill that helps to boost a team’s offensive output when they’re struggling offensively. However, with Stockton the power play and penalty kill have been stellar all year, with each ranking in the top six in the league.

Translating the success the Heat have had on their special teams to five-a-side hockey has not come so easy for them, but the elements to do just that are there.

“We have to have a shoot first mentality,” Poirier explained. “We have to translate that mentality from our power play into our 5-on-5 play. Like I said, I don’t think the low scores are a huge problem for us because we are getting chances, but we have to make sure we’re shooting when we have the lane.”

It isn’t just shooting more often though either.

According to Riley, the Heat also have to start fighting for second and third chances more and crashing the net hard when the shot is let go.

“Our focus these past couple days has really been on getting into the dirty areas and getting on rebounds and scoring that way,” Riley said. “We can’t rely on special teams every night. We have to find a way to generate offense 5-on-5. That’s how you win on a consistent basis, getting offense all the way through your lineup.”

The Heat have another day of hard practice in Stockton before packing up for their first trip to Socal this season to take on the San Diego Gulls this Friday and Saturday.