The San Diego Gulls were held scoreless on all five of their power-play opportunities in a 4-2 loss to the Stockton Heat on Saturday night in Stockton, their seventh loss in nine games.

Derek Grant broke a tie with a power-play goal with four minutes, 47 seconds to play and added a short-handed empty net goal with 1:19 left for the Heat (7-8-0-2), the Calgary Flames American Hockey League affiliate.

The Gulls (11-9-0-1) never led. Kyle Bonis tied the score, 1-1, 2:53 into the second period. Defenseman Andrew O’Brien scored his first goal of the season on a low slap shot from just inside the blue line at 17:45 of the second period, 15 seconds after Freddie Hamilton had given Stockton a 2-1 lead.

Heat left wing Kenny Agostino opened the scoring with a power-play goal 6:33 into the first period. The Gulls had killed off more than three minutes of O’Brien’s high-sticking double minor penalty when Stockton center Turner Elson slid the puck to a wide-open Agostino in front of the net.

Ryan Faragher made his third consecutive start in goal for the Gulls in place of an injured Matt Hackett, stopping 40 of 43 shots. Hackett, who became the Gulls No. 1 goaltender following the Nov. 24 recall of John Gibson by the Anaheim Ducks, their NHL parent team, did not dress for his third consecutive game because of what Sam Kieckhefer, the Gulls communications manager, described as an upper-body injury.

Goaltender Joni Ortio stopped 23 of 25 shots for the Heat in front of a crowd at Stockton Arena announced at 5,076. The Gulls will resume play Friday at Bakersfield.

— City News Service