Heat Visit San Diego at 7:05 p.m. as Road Trip Rolls On
March 4, 2016 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Stockton Heat News Release
TONIGHT
The Heat's road trip carries on from the Bay to the south as the team visits the San Diego Gulls tonight at 7:05. The Heat are looking for a bounce-back game after suffering their worst loss of the season on Tuesday in San Jose.
LAST TIME VS. SAN DIEGO
The Heat had their best start to a game ever as on the first shift of the game, Freddie Hamilton completed the give and go with Kenny Agostino to put the Heat up just 21 seconds in, the fastest goal to start a game in Heat history. However just 1:33 later, the Heat would score again thanks to a Turner Elson tip in. The Gulls would cut the deficit to one after a rebound was put behind Kevin Poulin but Garnet Hathaway restored the two goal lead, but Brian McGrattan would answer to put the Gulls within one after 20 minutes.
The Gulls would tie the game in the second thanks to a pass that hit a stanchion and deflected right to the stick of Stefan Noesen while San Diego was shorthanded. Noesen would score on the breakaway.
San Diego kept the pressure on in the third, firing 16 shots toward Poulin, but the Poulin Wall came to play. He stopped all the shots in the third, including a game saving desperation save in the final two minutes to send the game to OT. Poulin again made a game saver in the OT session after Stockton failed to capitalize on the 4-on-3 power play. In the shootout Kenny Agostino scored the lone goal while Poulin stopped all three shots to come away with the 4-3 win.
WHO TO WATCH
Today we think the player to watch is a man with assists in his last two games, Mason Raymond. While Raymond has 10 points in 10 games played with the Heat, and even had a point against the Gulls in his first game with the Heat back on February 5, but he missed the last game at Stockton Arena against the Gulls in that 4-3 win.
More importantly, he has a close friend on the team now as newcomer Hunter Shinkaruk has been close family friends with the Raymond's for years. Both players are very quick and agile and with Shinkaruk starting to learn how the Heat play hockey, along with getting that monkey off of his back in the last game, we expect that if Raymond continues to help the Heat, many of those points will come from finding Shinkaruk in a dangerous spot.
And while you keep an eye on Mason tonight, keep an eye out for him on the power play as all six of his assists this season for the Heat have come a man up.
Interestingly enough, none of Raymond's 4 goals have come when the Heat are a man up.
SPEAKING OF SHINKARUK
As mentioned above, the newest member of the Heat scored the lone goal for Stockton on Tuesday in San Jose, his first for the team.
However it was far from his first this season as Shinkaruk now has 22 on the season, good enough to put him tied-sixth in the AHL, four behind league leader Mike Sislo from the Albany Devils.
In fact, Shinkaruk is just one behind team leader Derek Grant who had 23 before falling to a fractured jaw on February 6.
BUSY MARCH CRITICAL FOR PLAYOFF PUSH
The Stockton Heat have a busy end to the season with 13 games in the month of March including eight away from home as Stockton starts the month with a three-game road trip before returning home for four-straight (tied season long) and then head out on the longest trip of the season of five games before returning home to finish the month.
Stockton fell in the first game on the road to San Jose and has 12 more games this month, two of which occur back-to-back in San Diego beginning tonight.
The long road trip, which begins on March 19, sees the Heat start in Bakersfield and then take to the MTS Center in Manitoba, Canada for a pair before flying directly to Southern California to play the team's final games at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario.
As far as the games at home, Stockton sees just two California teams come to Stockton Arena with meetings with San Jose and San Diego while the team completes the season series with Texas with a pair of games on March 11 and 12. The team also hosts Iowa for the first and final time this season.
HATHAWAY'S TERRIFIC WEEK
You like to see the hard workers get rewarded and the Heat and the Heat fans are ecstatic that Garnet Hathaway made his NHL debut with the Flames on Leap Year, and just last night in against the Buffalo Sabres, Hathaway put up his first NHL points, assisting on Mikael Backlund's first period tally and Sean Monohan's third period goal.
It was his first multi-point game in the National Hockey League in just his third game played.
PLAYOFF PRIMER
With the Heat in the thick of the playoff chase, we take a look at what tonight's game against the San Diego Gulls can do for both teams.
Starting the day the Heat are sixth in the Pacific with a .510 win-percentage while San Diego enters today in third in the Pacific at .570.
Starting with Stockton, if the Heat can pull the victory in regulation the team would move them back to .520 tonight. In the event the Heat pick up just one point the team will stay at .510 while a regulation loss would send the team back to .500.
As for San Diego, a win would get them to .578 while an extra-time loss would drop the team at .569. A loss would put the Gulls at .559, but they would not fall from third in the Pacific but could find themselves virtually tied with the Barracuda.
Other Pacific Division action tonight sees both Texas teams in action against Central teams as Manitoba visits the AT&T Center in San Antonio to play the Rampage while Iowa takes on the Texas Stars in Cedar Park, Texas.
Keep an eye on the AHL's Playoff Primer updated every morning with the latest standings and magic numbers.
INTERESTING FACT
While the Heat still remain as the AHL leaders in average shots per game, however the last one against the Gulls saw the Heat be outshot 50 to 34 by the team ranked 19th in the AHL in shots per game.
It was the most shots given up by the Heat but it was the "KP" show as Kevin Poulin made 47 saves and stopped all three in the shootout to get the Heat the 4-3 win. The 47-saves were the most by a Heat goalie this season, five more than Joni Ortio's 42-save performance on December 29 against Ontario.
Friday, March 4, 2016
Arena: Valley View Casino Center
Date: March 4, 2016
Time: 7:05 p.m. PST
Broadcast: AHL Live, Spreaker & iHeartRadio beginning at 6:50 p.m. PST
Leading Scorer: STOCKTON: F Kenny Agostino (47GP, 17-24-41)
SAN DIEGO: D Brandon Montour (50GP, 9-31-40)
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.
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American Hockey League Stories from March 4, 2016
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