AHL Stockton Heat

Heat Visit Ontario in Southern California

November 25, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Stockton Heat News Release


Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Arena: Citizens Business Bank Arena

Date: November 25, 2015

Time: 7:00 p.m. PST

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

Leading Scorer: STOCKTON: C Markus Granlund (11GP, 5-4-9)

ONTARIO: RW Sean Backman (14GP, 4-11-15)

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 Emile Poirier puck.

TONIGHT

The Stockton Heat travel down to the Citizens Business Bank Center in Ontario, California looking to redeem themselves for an earlier loss this month against the Ontario Reign. The Heat will also be bringing with them a winning streak of three games and the team also has points in four-straight. Meanwhile, the Reign bring in a streak of two consecutive wins.

LAST TIME VS. ONTARIO

The Ontario Reign jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first 22:06 of the game. Jordan Samuels-Thomas notched the last three goals for the Reign, chasing Kent Simpson from the net.

PTO goalie Eric Hartzell came in and stopped all 17 shots the rest of the way but Peter Budaj's 38-save shutout powered the Reign to the 4-0 win.

WHO TO WATCH

Tonight there is no doubt that the man to watch is the only player for the Heat is the man who just arrived this morning.

Ladislav Smid was sent to the Heat today on a conditioning assignment, and while he won't be here long, Smid is a 565 game NHL veteran over the course of what has now spanned a decade with the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames.

The defenseman last suited up in the AHL back in 2007-08 for 8 games with the Springfield Falcons. In total, Smid has played 79 AHL games scoring 4 goals and 29 assists for 33 points. He's also +17 in his AHL career.

Last season, the Czech native missed 51 games due to injuries and has only suited up in four contests this year with the Calgary Flames.

So look for the bonafide NHL'er to get his legs going tonight while wearing the Heat roundel logo on his chest. It will be interesting to see who he plays with tonight as Coach Huska could pair him up with a younger defenseman as a teaching moment, or, you may see Coach Huska put Smid with fellow countrymen Jakub Nakladal.

He shouldn't be with the Heat long so enjoy watching this former 9th overall draft pick while you can!

WHAT A WIN!

The Stockton Heat persevered on Saturday over their Norcal rival, the San Jose Barracuda in an interesting game.

The Heat built the 2-0 lead just 8:13 into the game before San Jose would score one in the second and two in the third to take the lead. Emile Poirier's tying goal with 8:55 to go in the game sent it to overtime and eventually the shootout.

Kevin Poulin, who had stopped 30 of 33 in the contest suffered a freak injury during the first shot attempt in the first round and was helped off the ice, thrusting Kent Simpson into action.

Simpson watched as his team continued to score in the skills competition and eventually made the save needed to secure the win in the fifth round. It was Simpson's first AHL win since 3/20/15 while playing with Bridgeport despite the performance going down as 0 saves on 0 shots!

IT WAS A MILESTONE WEEK

Freddie Hamilton scored his 50th career AHL goal on Wednesday while Emile Poirier notched his 50th career point in the AHL on Wednesday. Kenny Agostino scored his 50th career AHL point on Saturday and Heat team captain Aaron Johnson suited up in his 700th combined NHL and AHL game on Saturday.

SCORING FIRST KEY IN STREAK

One of the big keys for the Stockton Heat is getting off to a good start, and during this four-game point streak, the Heat have scored first in each game.

In the shootout loss to San Antonio it was Drew Shore to get the Heat on the board first, followed by Garnet Hathaway in Texas, Derek Grant against San Diego and Kenny Agostino versus San Jose.

The Heat are actually 5-1-0-1 when the team strikes first in a contest, however that lone loss did occur while the Heat were on the road to Southern California. Austin Carroll scored his first pro goal to open the scoring in San Diego on Halloween in the Heat's 3-2 loss to the team.

The Heat also have a +4 goals differential in the first period and are 4-0-0-0 when leading after the first. A good start for Stockton will certainly be a key factor in the contest.

SCORING CHANGE FROM LAST GAME

A scoring change from the last game took away an assist from Emile Poirier and correctly gave it to Pat Sieloff. For Sieloff it's his second assist of the season when he kicked the puck to Kenny Agostino who eventually found Markus Granlund for his fifth goal of the season.

However for Poirier, this took away what would have been his second multi-point game of the season as he later would score the game tying goal in the late stages of the third period, his first of the season.

Poirier, who's in his sophomore season as a pro, finally broke through what was a bit of a scoring slump when he found some room in the slot and received a pass from behind the net from Derek Grant. Poirier's one-time gave the Heat the opportunity to force the game into extra time.

Last season, Poirier was tied for second on the Adirondack Flames with 19 goals. His last goal, prior to scoring last Saturday, occurred on April 18 while with those Flames so getting back in the goal column should prove huge for the confidence of the soon to be 21-year-old.

His lone multi-point game of the season occurred in the team's first game of the season against the Rockford IceHogs where Poirier had two assists.

INTERESTING FACT

Derek Grant's 5 goals in 5 games this season is the best start to any season he's ever had. Last year it took him 17 games to reach five goals and the previous quickest it took him 13 games back in the 2012-13 season while with the Binghamton Senators.

Grant also just notched his first assist of the season on Poirier's tying goal, putting the talented centerman on a back-to-back point streak with hopes of extending that tonight.

Check out the Stockton Heat Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from November 25, 2015


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