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AHL Stockton Heat

Kids Take over Stockton Arena as Heat Open up Home-And-Home Series with Ontario

December 29, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Stockton Heat News Release


TONIGHT

The Stockton Heat return to their true home, Stockton Arena, for the first time since Wednesday, December 16 after playing one in Sacramento at Raley Field and their last three games at the SAP Center in San Jose and Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield. The Heat are in the midst of a stretch where the team plays six games in nine nights and play game number three on night number four tonight against the Ontario Reign.

The Heat also will start a home-and-home series against the Reign as Stockton will travel to Ontario on New Years Eve.

LAST TIME VS. ONTARIO

While the Heat have seen much of Bakersfield and San Jose, the team hasn't seen much of the Ontario Reign. In fact you have to go back to November 25 in Ontario for the last meeting where all the goals were scored in the first period thanks to Justin Auger, Bill Arnold and Adrian Kempe.

Kent Simpson got the nod in that contest and ended up making 23 saves on 25 shots while Peter Budaj stopped 18 of 19 as the Reign came away with the close 2-1 win.

WHO TO WATCH

While much has been made about Derek Grant's point streak (and we'll talk about that in a moment) but there's one other streak on the team currently worth mentioning. Defenseman Jakub Nakladal now has points in back-to-back contests (1-2-3) and has assists in back-to-back contests (2 assists).

The soon to be 28-year-old will be looking for an early birthday gift tonight in the form of a couple more points as "Nak" celebrates his birthday tomorrow. He's scored his first two goals in North America against the Condors (in fact both on the road) utilizing wrist shots from the point that made their way through traffic.

Nakladal, who is currently the oldest defenseman on the team with Aaron Johnson at the Spengler Cup, has been a great two-way defenseman for the Heat this season and ranks second on the active defensive roster behind only Dustin Stevenson with a +1 rating (Stevenson is +3)

GRANT PUTTING THE POINT STREAK ON THE LINE

Derek Grant has without a doubt been the best offensive player for the Stockton Heat in recent memory as the forward has picked up a total of 8 points in his last five games in-a-row.

Grant has 4 goals and 4 assists during his streak and will look to extend the streak to six games at home tonight. The previous long streak for the Heat was three games that was accomplished by Drew Shore (twice) and Bill Arnold before being surpassed by Grant.

The Abbotsford, British Columbia native's goal on Sunday in San Jose was his 16th point of the season, meaning that he has overtaken Freddie Hamilton for the team lead in points. Previously Grant found himself in a three-way tie for the top spot on the team in points with Hamilton and Drew Shore with 15.

HEARD JOINS HEAT AFTER TERRIFIC RUN IN ECHL

After a tremendous run with the Adirondack Thunder of the ECHL, Mitchell Heard joined the Stockton Heat after he was recalled on Sunday and in fact, played on Sunday in San Jose.

While Heard's only appearance on the stat sheet on Sunday in his first official AHL contest of the year was for a two-minute minor penalty, the feisty forward recorded 23 points in 23 games with the Thunder including a game last Saturday at home where he recorded 2 goals and 2 assists in a game against the Manchester Monarchs.

It was his second ever four-point game in the ECHL and his big night put him second on his team behind fellow Heat prospect Michael Kirkpatrick for the Thunder's lead in points.

THE MAPLE LEAF FOREVER

For the first time in his long and illustrious career, defenseman and team captain Aaron Johnson will wear the red and white maple leaf on his chest!

The 32-year-old is representing Team Canada in the 89th Spengler Cup held in Davos, Switzerland.

Johnson is one of six players out of the 23-man roster to play in the AHL. He's played 14 games for the Heat this season and leads the defenseman in points with nine (1-8-9).

Team Canada has won the Spengler Cup 12 times but haven't won since 2012. Johnson's Team Canada has won both games thus far in the tournament and find themselves through to the semi-final to face the winner of Jokerit or HC Davos (whom Team Canada shutout in their second game). Johnson is pointless but led the team in time on ice during both games as Head Coach Guy Boucher seems to be leaning on the veteran of 291 NHL games as a shutdown defenseman.

AREN'T YOU TIRED YET?

Ontario Reign netminder Peter Budaj has seen a lot of the ice this season, having played in 21 of the Reign's 24 games while posting a 15-4-2 record with 4 shutouts. Budaj has gotten the call between the pipes twice against the Stockton Heat and has gone 2-0-0, allowing just one goal to the Heat and earning one of his four shutouts against the team.

Budaj leads the league with a 1.56 goals-against-average, is third with a 0.935 save-percentage, and tied for first with 15 wins and 4 shutouts.

The only other netminder to see action for Ontario this year was Ray Emery who was on a pro tryout with the Reign before being released and signing a pro tryout with the Toronto Marlies. The only other goaltender on the roster for the Reign is Michael Houser, who's gone 8-3-0 with the Manchester Monarchs of the ECHL but has yet to see a minute of action in the AHL this season.

Houser has spent time in the AHL though, playing parts of the last two seasons with the San Antonio Rampage. However if you're one for betting, playing in 88% of your team's games leads us to believe that the Heat will be seeing plenty of Budaj in the next two games.

INTERESTING FACT

Derek Grant has matched his career AHL-long point streak with his goal scored in San Jose on Sunday pushing his streak to five games. He accomplished a five-game point streak just one other time in his career and it actually occurred this calendar year but for a different team.

From February 15 to February 21, Grant notched 2 goals and recorded 4 assists during a five-game stretch for the Binghamton Senators. Should Grant record a point tonight it'd be his longest such streak in his AHL career.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Arena: Stockton Arena

Date: December 29, 2015

Time: 7:00 p.m. PST (Doors at 6:00 p.m.)

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

Giveaway: Kids T-Shirts to the first 500 children 12-years-old and younger

Leading Scorer: STOCKTON: C Derek Grant (16 GP, 11-5-16)

ONTARIO: RW Sean Backman (24 GP, 6-15-21)

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 Mitchell Heard puck.

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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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