AHL Stockton Heat

Weekly News and Notes of the Stockton Heat

November 16, 2015 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Stockton Heat News Release


News and Notes

- The Stockton Heat broke their six game winless skid during last Saturday's 5-3 win over the Texas Stars. The Heat have one more streak to snap as the team has gone three home games without a win. They have two chances this week with San Diego and San Jose coming to town.

- The Heat scored shorthanded goals in back-to-back games this past week against San Antonio and Texas. First it was Garnet Hathaway who scored the shorthanded game tying goal against the San Antonio Rampage on Friday before Turner Elson scored a pair of shorthanded goals, including an empty netter, to raise the Heat to 4 shorthanded goals this season, which is tied for second most in the AHL and just one behind the league leading Binghamton Senators.

- Kevin Poulin made his season debut with the Stockton Heat on Friday in San Antonio after being acquired by the Calgary Flames from the Tampa Bay Lightning. Poulin played both games this weekend going 1-0-1, stopping 61 of 68 shots.

- After opening the season scoring 7 goals, the Heat only scored managed to score 8 goals in the next seven games. The Heat got the offense going last week in the Lone Star State as they scored 9 goals in the last two games.

- Saturday's game in Texas was the first time since the 10/21/15 game against those same Texas Stars that the Heat penalty kill unit killed off 100% of the penalties taken. It wasn't an easy task either as the team had to kill off a season high 9 power-play chances that Texas received in that contest.

- Markus Granlund leads the team with 3 multi-point games, two of which came against the Rampage and Stars last weekend. Granlund had his first two-goal game of the season on Friday in San Antonio and followed it up with a two-assist performance in Texas on Saturday.

Approaching Milestones

- Freddie Hamilton is 1 goal away from scoring his 50th goal in the AHL.

- Emile Poirier is just 1 point shy of 50 in his AHL career.

- Kenny Agostino is 1 points away from 50 in his AHL career.

- Colton Orr is 2 PIMS away from 600 in his AHL career. The forward has 1186 PIMS in the NHL.

- Bill Arnold is just 8 points shy of 50 career AHL points.

- Brett Kulak is 7 games away from 50 career AHL games.

- Blair Riley is 8 games away from playing in 300 AHL games.

- Heat captain Aaron Johnson is just 10 points away from 200 career AHL points.

- In addition, Johnson is just 2 games shy of having played 700 combined NHL and AHL games.

- Garnet Hathaway is 11 games away from 100 career AHL games.

- Head Coach Ryan Huska is 14 games away from coaching in his 100th AHL game. He's just 10 games away from coaching in his 600th game as a head coach (504 games with the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL)

Recently Accomplished Milestones

- Ryan Lomberg registered his first AHL point of his career on Saturday with an assist on Blair Riley's game winner against the Texas Stars. Lomberg has scored 4 goals and added an assist in 5 games with the Heat's ECHL affiliate, the Adirondack Thunder, this season, scoring his first pro goal in his official pro debut with the Thunder.

Goals and Bounces Finally go in the Heat's Favor

This weekend terms like "snake bitten" and "monkey on our backs" were used a few times in both a personal and team sense. The team had been performing well in the game's leading up to their second trip to Texas, but for whatever reason, the goals just wouldn't fall for the team. Entering the trip to the Lone Star State, the Heat had scored just 15 goals this season, seven of which came in the first game of the season.

And while scoring wasn't happening for the team in the game's leading up to last week's trip a few players were trying to get back onto the scoresheet after being held off for a lengthy stay.

Fortunately, Kenny Agostino, Markus Granlund, Turner Elson and Drew Shore got back on the scoresheet with a couple strong games against San Antonio and Texas.

However no player was happier than Garnet Hathaway. Hathaway was tied for second with Emile Poirier last year on the Adirondack Flames in goals with 19, which was one of the things that helped the forward earn an NHL contract with the Calgary Flames. He missed the Heat's first game of the season, but has dressed in every game since and finally on Friday in San Antonio, Hathaway picked a great time to snap his slump, putting a shorthanded deke past the San Antonio goalie to tie the game and send it to overtime. For Hathaway, it was his first goal since April 4, 2015, a game that Adirondack would play oddly enough, in San Antonio.

The former Brown University forward would strike again the following night in Texas to open the scoring, finishing off a great tic-tac-toe passing play on the back door. He'll hope to carry the momentum into a couple home games this week against San Diego and San Jose.

A Zap Zone PK Performance of a Lifetime

The Heat penalty kill has had its ups and downs so far this year, but Saturday's game in Texas may have been the best one yet for the team. A total of nine power plays were handed to the Stars, including two separate two-man-advantages in the game.

The nine power plays given were the most by the Heat this season and put a lot of pressure on a team trying to get into the win column for the first time since the last contest in Texas. However the team rose to the occasion and actually buried two goals while down a man.

The first came in the first period when team captain Aaron Johnson found Turner Elson at center ice. Elson carved his way toward the net and eventually put the wristshot past the Texas netminder to put the Heat up 3-0.

Late in the game with Kenny Agostino in the box and the Heat clinging to a one-goal lead, Elson once again received a pass from Johnson as the captain sauced the puck over a defender right to the stick of Elson who deposited the insurance marker in the empty net.

Overall it was a great performance on the Zap Zone penalty kill this weekend, allowing just one goal (which came on a two-man advantage against San Antonio) on 16 opportunities, giving the team a kill percentage of 93.8% for the weekend.

Multi-Point Efforts

Entering this weekend the Heat had just seven players who've recorded multi-point efforts. In fact, all seven of those players recorded those multi-point efforts in the same game, the 7-0 win over the Rockford IceHogs to open the season.

However that all changed when the offense began to turn for the Heat in Texas. On Friday, Dustin Stevenson (0-2-2), Freddie Hamilton (0-2-2), Markus Granlund (2-0-2) and Kenny Agostino (0-2-2) had multi-point games followed up by three multi-point efforts against the Texas Stars on Saturday with Turner Elson (2-0-2), Aaron Johnson (0-2-2) and Granlund's second in as many games (0-2-2).

After the offensive outburst, 10 players have combined for 13 multi-point games with Granlund leading the team with multi-point games on three separate occasions, including the last two games where he has 2 goals and 2 assists for 4 points.

For the first time since the first game of the season, the Heat also received back-to-back games of a player scoring two goals in a game, with Granlund (Friday) and Elson (Saturday) joining Derek Grant as the only players to score more than once in a single game this season.

Hot Pink 1 Jerseys Up for Grabs this Week

The Heat have five more pink and black specialty jerseys up for auction on eBay that end on Wednesday when the clock strikes midnight.

Fans can bid on the game worn jerseys of Markus Granlund, Jakub Nakladal and Oliver Kylington or the game issued jerseys from goalie Karri Ramo or the man who scored the first goal in team history, Derek Grant.

Proceeds from these jerseys will be added to the donation that is given to St. Joseph's Foundation - Breast Health Services.

Looking for Redemption

On Wednesday the Heat host the San Diego Gulls for the first time at Stockton Arena. The teams have already met twice this season with the Heat falling in the shootout during the first game before falling in regulation in the second. The Heat will probably be most disappointed by their special teams play against the Gulls at the power play only struck once out of 13 times (7.7%) while allowing 3 goals on eight chances (62.5% kill percentage).

The first 1,000 fans entering the barn on Wednesday will receive an oversized Markus Granlund trading card! Granlund was the first ever player to play for the Heat and receive the call up to the National Hockey League.

The San Jose Barracuda come to Stockton Arena for the second time on Saturday. San Jose won the only meeting between these teams back in October 4-1 with Derek Grant's highlight reel goal the lone marker for the Heat.

Saturday is Star Wars Night, meaning that 501st Legion, Central California Garrison will be in attendance! Fans are encouraged to wear Star Wars costumes and the first 500 kids (12-years-old and younger) in the barn will receive a white Stockton Heat replica jersey!

On the ice, the team hopes to carry the momentum from last Saturday's win over the Texas Stars into the games this weekend to begin a winning streak this week.

Records:

Last Week's Record: 1-0-0-1, 3 points

Overall Record: 3-5-0-2, 0.400 Win Percentage, 7th in the Pacific Division

Last Week's Results:

Nov. 13 - Stockton Heat 4 at San Antonio 5 (SOL)

Nov. 14 - Stockton Heat 5 at Texas 3

This Week's Schedule:

Wed. Nov. 18 - Stockton Heat vs. San Diego Gulls - Stockton Arena (7:00 p.m.)

Sat. Nov. 21 - Stockton Heat vs. San Jose Barracuda - Stockton Arena (7:30 p.m.)

Recent Transactions

11/16 - Derek Grant assigned to the Stockton Heat by the Calgary Flames

11/13 - Ryan Culkin loaned to the Adirondack Thunder from the Stockton Heat by the Calgary Flames

11/13 - Eric Hartzell released from pro tryout contract by the Stockton Heat

11/12 - Kevin Poulin assigned to the Stockton Heat by the Calgary Flames

Team Leaders

Goals: Markus Granlund with 4

Assists: Kenny Agostino with 6

Points: Markus Granlund with 8

PIMs: Hunter Smith and Emile Poirier with 14

Wins: Jon Gillies with 2

Losses: Jon Gillies with 3

GAA (Played at least 5 games): Jon Gillies with 2.31

SV% (Played at least 5 games): Jon Gillies with 0.920

Team Stats

Goals For: Week: 9 | Overall: 24

Goals Against: Week: 7 | Overall: 29

Power Play: 8-52 (15.4%), T-17th in AHL

Penalty Kill: 42-48 (87.5%), 8th in AHL

Records vs. Opponents

Pacific Division:

Bakersfield Condors (0-1-0-0)

Ontario (0-1-0-0)

San Antonio (0-1-0-1)

San Diego (0-1-0-1)

San Jose (0-1-0-0)

Texas (2-0-0-0)

TOTALS vs. PACIFIC: (2-5-0-2)

Central Division:

Rockford (1-0-0-0)

TOTALS vs. CENTRAL: (1-0-0-0)

Calgary Flames (NHL)

Record Last Week: 1-3-0, 2 points

Record Overall: 6-12-1, .342 Win Percentage, 6th in Pacific Division

This Week's Schedule:

Tue. Nov. 17 - Flames vs. New Jersey(6:00 p.m. PST)

Fri. Nov. 20 - Flames vs. Chicago (6:00 p.m. PST)

Adirondack Thunder (ECHL)

Record Last Week: 1-1-0, 2 points

Record Overall: 9-2-0, .818 Win Percentage, 1st in East Division

This Week's Schedule:

Wed. Nov. 18 - Thunder vs. Norfolk (7:00 a.m. PST)

Check out the Stockton Heat Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from November 16, 2015


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