This is the second installment of our #20in20 series where each week we will be profiling one key player from each of the Calgary Hitmen 20 seasons in the Western Hockey League. Join us in celebrating 20 years of Hitmen hockey! The best there is! The best there was! The best there ever will be!
Calgary Hitmen alumnus Michael Stone looks back at losing Game 4 of the 2010 Western Hockey League final as a blessing in disguise.
The defeat at the hands of the Tri-City Americans brought the series back to the Scotiabank Saddledome, where with a 4-1 triumph, the Hitmen took home their first WHL title on home ice before a sell-out crowd of 15,335.
Stone, who scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner to clinch the Ed Chynoweth Cup and a Memorial Cup berth, said he’s happy things worked out the way they did.
“Nobody’s trying to lose a game, but the fact that we did lose made the night we won that much more special,” Stone said. “Being back at home with a full Saddledome and getting to share it with friends and family was really nice.”
Stone was back on his old WHL stomping grounds on Thursday as his Arizona Coyotes prepared to take on the Calgary Flames at the Dome.
In four seasons with the Hitmen, Stone amassed 181 points in 264 games.
The 24-year-old defenceman drafted 69th overall in the 2008 NHL Draft hit his peak in his final year of junior, scoring 21 goals and 44 assists in 69 games en route to a WHL championship.
Skating with a Hitmen club that went deep in the playoffs every season throughout his tenure, Stone knew a championship was on the horizon leading up to the 2009-2010 campaign.
“I remember a lot of playoff hockey,” Stone said of his Hitmen memories. “The main thing I remember is finally getting over the hump in my last year and winning the championship, that’s probably my fondest memory.”
The Hitmen WHL title almost was not to be as in the first round of the 2010 playoffs against the Moose Jaw Warriors, the team found themselves with their backs against the wall, facing a 3-1 series deficit.
Stone and the Hitmen knew, however, that to get eliminated as No. 1 seed by a team with just 33 wins that season, would not be an acceptable fate.
“I remember being down three one and it not being a good feeling,” Stone said. “It wouldn’t have looked good going out like that. Things rallied from there and we managed to play through that and get through that series.”
After his time with the Hitmen, Stone jumped right up to the pro ranks, spending two seasons in the AHL with the San Antonio Rampage and Portland Pirates.
Stone played his first full NHL season during the truncated 2012-2013 campaign, scoring nine points in 40 games. This season, Stone has a goal and a trio of assists in 16 games with the Coyotes.
Since then, Stone has become a permanent fixture on the Coyotes’ blue line and he intends to keep it that way.
“There’s still a lot of room for me to grow,” he explained. “I’m, still moving forward and hopefully I can end up with a long career in the NHL,. that’s the goal for me anyways.”
Calgary Hitmen play-by-play man Brad Curle has more.
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