AHL Stockton Heat

Heat Hope to Stay Hot against San Jose on Star Wars Night

November 21, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Stockton Heat News Release


SAN JOSE: RW Ryan Carpenter (13GP, 1-8-9)

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 Turner Elson puck.

TONIGHT

After a winless skid that lasted for six games, the Heat have now reversed their fortunes through hard work and have picked up points in their last three games dating back to the November 13 game in San Antonio and now have wins in their last two, including the team's third shutout win of the season on Wednesday against San Diego.

LAST TIME VS. SAN JOSE

Despite being the closest rival of the Stockton Heat, the Norcal teams have only met up once this season back on October 15 at Stockton Arena in what was just the second game of the year for the Heat.

It took over 20 minutes for either team to breakthrough but it was San Jose's leading scorer, Ryan Carpenter, who was the man to do it just 28 seconds into the period. He then factored into San Jose's second goal moments later. The Barracuda tacked on a third in the second before Derek Grant scored his third goal of the season off of what we'd consider to be a goal of the year candidate where the forward carved through a defender by putting a puck between his legs, swerving around him, and finishing with a backhander past Aaron Dell.

The Barracuda would however tack on one more and keep the Heat off the scoresheet the rest of the way en route to the 4-1 San Jose win. The Heat hope for redemption tonight against the 'Cuda.

WHO TO WATCH

There's a strong case made for half the team tonight. We were right about watching Derek Grant in his return to the Heat lineup in the Wednesday night game against San Diego, and while he'd be high on our list, let's keep an eye on Drew Shore tonight.

Shore started off a bit sluggish this season, scoring in the first game for the Heat but adding an assist in his next seven games to finish his first 8 games played with just 2 points.

However that has changed recently as Shore finds himself on a team long, 3-game point streak scoring a goal and adding 3 assists during the streak. Not only has the offense been clicking for Shore, but the responsible two-way forward has been monstrous on the penalty kill and most recently the faceoff dot.

With Bill Arnold and Derek Grant some of the best faceoff takers on the team, Shore may get overlooked in the dot, but he was magnificent in Wednesday's game against San Diego and whatever caused the former University of Denver star to stay off the scoresheet early in the season, seems to be gone.

Look for Shore to again have an excellent two-way performance tonight and we certainly hope the points continue to go in Shore's favor as well!

WHAT? NO LOVE FOR POULIN?

Wednesday's game was a very good effort for the Heat, in fact you could even say that it was one of the best 60-minute effort the Heat have had all season.

Part of the reason it was such a good effort was because of the man between the pipes, Kevin Poulin, who amazingly has only played three games since April 19, 2014, picked up the 21-save shutout with the Heat on Wednesday, giving the team their third shutout of the season after Jon Gillies earned the first two of the year.

Poulin was calm, cool, and calculated in his shot stopping on Wednesday, having completely shaken off whatever rust he had in his first game of the season and with the Heat back in San Antonio. In fact, that was Poulin's seventh shutout of his AHL career and first since December 26 of last season while playing for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in a game against the Providence Bruins.

The goalie was acquired in an NHL deal from the Tampa Bay Lightning and was assigned to the Heat just prior to November 13. He's appeared in all three games since going 2-0-0-1. He'll look to improve that mark today.

WELCOME BACK GRANT!

After spending nine games in the NHL with the Calgary Flames, Derek Grant was reassigned to the Stockton Heat and he didn't wait too long to continue his hot start to the season, scoring twice in the game against San Diego on Wednesday.

His first goal was reminiscent of the first goal in team history, also scored by Grant, as Turner Elson jumped on a loose puck in the Gulls zone and through a precise pass to the side of the cage that was tipped in by Grant. His second goal of the game took a moment for everyone to realize what had happened, but after a video review by the officials, it was determined that Grant's shot from the slot went in and through the netting for his second marker of the game.

This was Grant's second, two-goal game of his season and despite missing some time while with Calgary, the Abbotsford, BC native has regained his team lead in goals with five. He's also one of only three players on the Heat to have multi-goal games (Elson, Granlund & Grant) and in fact leads the team with two, 2-goal games.

HITTING MILESTONES

In Wednesday's game against the San Diego Gulls, the Heat had two players hit milestones.

The first to do so was Freddie Hamilton who scored on a crazy bounce that went off of his stick and into the net through the goaltender's legs and in, putting the Heat up 2-0 and signaling the "beginning of the end" for the Gulls in the game.

For Hamilton though, who now has 4 goals on the season, it was actually his 50th career AHL goal in the contest. Another player who hit the 50 plateau but for points was Emile Poirier, who's assist on Grant's second goal gave him the honor of reaching 50 points in the early parts of his sophomore season.

The next player who might hit the 50 point milestone is Kenny Agostino, who needs just one to reach the same marker.

INTERESTING FACT

One other rare and exciting milestone could impact a member of the Heat today as team captain Aaron Johnson could find himself suiting up in front of the home crowd in what would be his 700th combined NHL and AHL game.

A rare feat for any player, but for a player who's been consistently good for not only the development of Calgary's prospects, but also as a key defenseman for the team, it'd be an exciting thing to watch him play in his 700th game in front of the Heat faithful at Stockton Arena.

Do yourself a favor and cheer this man on like crazy tonight if he finds himself in the lineup. It might just push Johnson to find the back of the net himself for the first time this season instead of just helping others score the goals!

Check out the Stockton Heat Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from November 21, 2015


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.

OurSports Central