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AHL Stockton Heat

Heat Look for Big Road Win against Ontario Tonight at 7

February 17, 2016 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Stockton Heat News Release


TONIGHT

The Heat have been marvelous at home but that won't aid them tonight as they find themselves in hostile territory, taking on the Ontario Reign at Citizens Business Bank Arena.

The last game against Ontario did go the way of the Heat as Kevin Poulin closed the door during a 3-0 shutout last weekend over the Pacific Division leaders, however the last game in Southern California between the squads did not go their way as Drew Shore scored the lone goal in a 6-1 loss against the Reign back on January 8.

One thing going for Stockton however is that overall, the Heat have beaten the Reign in three of the last four meetings including a New Year's Eve win over Ontario on the road.

LAST TIME VS. ONTARIO

As alluded to above, the Stockton Heat went to work at home last Saturday against the Reign and came out the better team as Mason Raymond led the way offensively with the opening goal of the game and than an assist on Drew Shore's power-play goal.

Blair Riley would tack one more on with the empty netter in the third while Kevin Poulin saw a lot of action in the third and stopped them all, finishing with his second shutout win of the season and tying Jon Gillies for the most saves made by a Heat goalie in a blanking performance of an opposing team with 36.

WHO TO WATCH

With Freddie Hamilton and Drew Shore snapping long goal scoring droughts over the weekend for the Heat after being named in this column, we could give you another player who might be "due" for some points, but when one line records 10 points in a single game, they all get listed here! Our hands are tied!

Freddie Hamilton broke out of his drought last Sunday with a 2 goal and 1 assist multi-point effort against a team that has brought the best out of him (San Antonio) but his wingers were equally impressive.

Garnet Hathaway had a 3 assist game for the Stockton Heat while Kenny Agostino became just the second player to reach the 4 point plateau in a single game as his 2 goals and 2 assists against San Antonio led the Heat to victory.

This line has been together before with terrific results, so all three are players to watch tonight against a very difficult, defensively minded team in Ontario.

POWERFUL PLAY

The Stockton Heat power play might rank as the 12th best power play in the league but the team's PP unit has scored at least once in each of the last eight games.

Over that stretch the Heat have gone 9 for 32 (28.1%), 10% better than their season conversion percentage of 18.1%. Kenny Agostino leads the team with 14 power-play points followed by Freddie Hamilton with 11, who also tied for the team lead in power-play goals with six (Grant).

However Mason Raymond has been the guy to watch when the Heat are up a man, being in on all but one power play goal since being reassigned to the Heat.

MASE OF BASE

Speaking of the most seasoned NHL veteran on the club, Mason Raymond continues to be hot for the Heat scoring 2 goals and adding 3 assists for 5 points in just 4 games played.

Mason has been key for the Heat while the team plays without leading scorer Derek Grant who went down last week with a jaw injury in practice.

Not only has Raymond filled an offensive void for Stockton, but he's also played the part of a responsible, defensively minded player making a few big plays, particularly during that meeting with Ontario on Saturday, to break up what could have been great scoring chances.

Look for him to do more of the same tonight as he tries to push his points streak to four-straight.

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, Saturday 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 Ontario.

INTERESTING FACT

Nobody may be hotter than Kenny Agostino right now for the Stockton Heat. Agostino has recorded 19 of his 34 points since the calendar turned to January and in his last four games, Agostino notched seven of those 19 points, meaning that nearly 37% of his offense in 2016 has come very, very recently.

Nearly 56% of his 34 points this season have come in the last two months, and we're not even through February!

For Agostino fans, this shouldn't be a huge surprise as last year, 79% of his team-leading 43 points came once the calendar shifted from 2014 to 2015.

Arena: Citizens Business Bank Arena

Date: February 17, 2016

Time: 7:00 p.m. PST

Broadcast: AHL Live, Spreaker & iHeartRadio beginning at 6:45 p.m. PST

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

ONTARIO: F Sean Backman/Nic Dowd (45GP, 11-24-35)/(45GP 10-25-35)

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 Kenney Morrison puck.

Check out the Stockton Heat Statistics

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