The Henderson Silver Knights’ final game before the holiday break scheduled for Wednesday December 22 was postponed, and the team will play their next game on Wednesday, December 29 vs. the San Diego Gulls. With that a ways away, here’s a quick quick update on where things stand at the break.
The Silver Knights have a record of 12-7-3 with 27 points in 22 games played. That equates to a .614 points percentage, and places them third in the AHL’s Pacific Division. The team is five points up on fourth place Tucson, three points back of the second place Ontario Reign, and 12 points back of the first place Stockton Heat.
In terms of individual team leaders, Pavel Dorofeyev, 79th overall pick in third round of 2019 NHL Draft, leads the team in goals (9) and points (16). Daniil Miromanov leads the team with 12 assists in 19 games played. Jack Dugan, Jake Leschyshyn, and Jonas Rondbjerg are all tied for the lead in points per game average (0.90), as each player has recorded nine points in 10 games played.
In goal, Logan Thompson has appeared in 19 of the games played thus far, and he’s posted a record of 10-6-3 with a .929 save percentage, and a 2.53 goals against average. He’s faced 7 shots in the shootout, and only surrendered two goals which gives him a shootout save percentage of .714.
When the Silver Knights return from the break they will have a bit of a busy stretch. The team will travel to San Diego on December 29, Ontario on December 31, and return home for games vs. Bakersfield on January 1, and a contest vs the Gulls on January 5.
The team will then play a back-to-back on the road vs. the San Jose Baracuda on January 7 and 8, and will then be off until January 12 when Henderson takes on Stockton at home. They then play a back-to-back home and home vs. the Orlando Reign on January 14 and 15 before getting a week off before playing Stockton again twice. In total from December 29 to January 29, the Silver Knights will play 13 games.
In terms of a breakdown by opponent, pending any potential COVID postponements, Henderson will have three games vs. Stockton, three games vs. Ontario, two games vs. San Diego, two games vs. San Jose, two games vs. Colorado, and one game vs. the Bakersfield Condors.
This stretch of games will give the team a chance to gain some ground on teams ahead of them, while also beating up on some weaker competition. Colorado currently sits sixth in the division, Bakersfield seventh, San Jose eighth, and the Gulls are last in the division in ninth place.
Overall, Henderson is playing decent well, and has a chance to improve their standing in what will be a busy January. The Silver Knights went 25-13-1 with 51 points in a truncated 2020-21 season, and ultimately fell short in the Pacific Division postseason tournament vs. Bakersfield.
This season the team has room for improvement offensively, as their 65 goals scored are sixth in the division. That said, defensively they’ve only surrendered 57 goals which is second in the division, and tied for third overall in the league. Continuing their solid play out of the break, they went 6-3-1, tallying 13 points in their last 10 games played, will help them move up the standings, with the end goal being a playoff berth, and making a run for the Calder Cup.
Stats via the AHL unless otherwise noted.