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Stockton Heat

Heat Search for Ninth Win In-A-Row at Home During Valentine's Day Showdown with Rampage

February 14, 2016 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Stockton Heat News Release


TONIGHT

The Stockton Heat look to earn their ninth-straight victory at home, as they host the San Antonio Rampage at Stockton Arena.

Stockton bounced back from three-straight losses on the road to earn a 3-0 win over Ontario Saturday night, as Kevin Poulin pitched a 36-save shutout between the pipes for the Heat.

San Antonio won back-to-back games in Charlotte before making the trip to California and getting beat by the San Jose Barracuda 5-0 Saturday at the SAP Center.

AUTOGRAPHS AT THE HOTEL POSTGAME

The Stockton Heat will have another partial team autograph session tonight at the University Plaza Waterfront Hotel next door after the game. No need to rush over as the guys have workouts to tend to after the game, but once it's all done, the boys will head over to meet the fans, sign autographs and take pictures.

While this list is subject to change the following players are scheduled to appear tonight:

Brett Kulak - Defenseman - #2

Ryan Culkin - Defenseman - #3

Oliver Kylington - Defenseman - #4

Kenney Morrison - Defenseman - #7

Austin Carroll - Forward - #20

Blair Riley - Forward - #25

Kent Simpson - Goalie - #30

Hunter Smith - Forward - #34

Bill Arnold - Forward - #46

The final autograph session at the Hotel will be next Sunday, February 21 after the game against the San Jose Barracuda.

LAST TIME VS. SAN ANTONIO

Back on January 13th, the Stockton Heat defeated the Rampage 6-2 at Stockton Arena with Freddie Hamilton leading the way offensively, scoring a pair of goals to propel the Heat to victory.

Derek Grant, Kenny Agostino, Emile Poirier and Turner Elson all turned in multi-point efforts, while Kevin Poulin stopped 31 of the 33 shots he faced en route to the W.

Unfortunately, it was a somber win though, as the game also marks the last time Heat fans have seen Bill Arnold in action. Arnold has missed every game since, nursing a lower body injury.

WHO TO WATCH

He's been in a bit of a rough patch lately, but that's typically when Freddie Hamilton shows up with his best performances.

Looking at the statsheets, one thing at the moment stands out quite a bit and that's the fact that Hamilton - the team's third-leading scorer - has not scored a goal in his last ten games. The other thing you notice is that the last time he did score, Hamilton rattled off two goals and three points against (who else) the San Antonio Rampage.

In fact, Hamilton leads all Heat players with six points against the Rampage this season, meaning that San Antonio is the perfect team to come to town during such a dry spell for #11.

Watch out for Hamilton to have a big night tonight with a team he's shown he can torch rolling into Stockton Arena.

MASE OF BASE

Ever since Mason Raymond joined the Heat roster, all he's done is rack up five points in just four games, including a current streak of back-to-back games with at least two points.

Raymond certainly brings all the intangibles that a veteran of over 500 NHL games would be expected to possess, but his offensive prowess has truly shined through since joining Stockton.

He's earning minutes in every situation and rewarding those decisions with production on both ends of the ice.

Not only did Raymond score those two points last night, but he made a phenomenal defensive play in the neutral zone during the second period that prevented an Ontario breakaway when the game was still far from over.

That broken up stretch pass mixed with the amount of times his name appears on the scoresheet is exactly what makes Mason Raymond such a valued member of Stockton's current forward unit.

His run with the Heat - while short - has been remarkable and he is showing no signs of slowing down.

KP! KP! KP!

That pretty much sums up the way every fan should be viewing Kevin Poulin at the moment.

Poulin made save after save, especially in the third period during Saturday's game against Ontario and earned a share of the team-lead in shutouts with his 36-save performance.

He tied Jon Gillies with two shutouts on the season and did it in typical Poulin fashion - nothing too flashy, a big save here and there, but for the most part making a lot of difficult saves look easy.

When a goaltender makes a save in his chest and eats it up, nine times out of 10 that is not the player shooting it into the netminders chest, rather the goaltender putting himself into the proper position to make an easy save.

Those are the saves that Poulin makes on a regular basis. Sure, last night's third period saw him make a couple incredible highlight reel saves when he was without his stick late in the third period, but for the most part it was a lot of routine-looking saves.

But for the average goaltender those saves are anything but routine. Poulin has shown the ability to move side-to-side and challenge shooters so well that he can make even the toughest saves look like a Sunday walk in the park.

Here's to him taking another stroll through the park tonight against San Antonio.

POWERFUL PLAY:

The Stockton Heat power play might rank as the 13th best power play in the league but the team's PP unit has scored at least once in each of the last seven games.

Over that stretch the Heat have gone 8 for 31 (25.8%), just over 8% better than their season conversion percentage of 17.7.

Kenny Agostino leads the team with 13 power-play points followed by Freddie Hamilton with 11, who also leads the team in power-play goals with six.

INTERESTING FACT

The Stockton Heat have not lost all season when they score the first goal at home. They have won all nine games at Stockton Arena in which they light the lamp before their opponent.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Arena: Stockton Arena

Date: February 14, 2016

Time: 4:00 p.m. PST (Doors at 3:00 p.m. PST)

Giveaway: First 1000 fans receive a team photo

Broadcast: AHL Live, Spreaker & iHeartRadio beginning at 3:45 p.m. PST

Leading Scorer: STOCKTON: F Derek Grant (30GP, 23-15-38)

SAN ANTONIO: F Mikko Rantanen (32GP, 17-24-41)

For the live, in-game tweets, follow @AHLHeatPR. Stay tuned at the end of the game for the Chase Chevrolet Big Moment of the Game with your chance to win an autographed Blair Riley puck.

Check out the Stockton Heat Statistics

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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