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AHL Stockton Heat

Weekly News and Notes of the Stockton Heat

January 25, 2016 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Stockton Heat News Release


News and Notes

- After Saturday's win, the Stockton Heat pulled in a virtual tie with the San Antonio Rampage, but based on the first tiebreaker (points percentage not including shootout wins) Stockton remained in seventh. However, after a Sunday win for the Texas Stars over San Antonio, Stockton finds themselves out of the seventh position in the Division for the first time since November 21.

- The Condors are set to host the Manitoba Moose on Tuesday and if Bakersfield loses in regulation, the Heat will jump over them for fifth in the division.

- The fourth through seventh placed teams in the Pacific are separated by .037 in points percentage (San Diego, Bakersfield, Stockton, San Antonio). A long win streak would boost a team while a lengthy losing skid could put a team at the bottom very quickly

- Derek Grant's seven-game point streak came to an end on Friday night despite the forward scoring the game winner in the shootout. Grant had 6 goals and 6 assists in what was the longest point streak of his career and in Heat team history

- Grant's 17 goals ties him for fourth in the AHL

- Grant and Ontario's Sean Backman are tied atop the AHL with 124 shots on goal

- Three Heat players have shot over 100 times this year with Grant (124), Freddie Hamilton (108) and Kenny Agostino (106)

- Grant had his team leading 10th multi-point effort on Saturday vs. Manitoba. He has five multi-goal games

- Garnet Hathaway is tied for third most Shorthanded goals in the AHL with two

- He's the second Heat player with two shorties as Turner Elson did that in one game back on November 14 against Texas

- Austin Carroll is third in the AHL among rookies with 7 major penalties, all for fighting. Fellow rookie Hunter Smith is tied for fourth in the AHL with 6 fighting majors

- With 16 games played at home, Stockton (along with Bakersfield) have played the fewest number of home games in the AHL. Both teams will play game 17 and 18 at home this week

- Stockton is 10-6-0 at home this season and have won their last five games at Stockton Arena dating back to January 2

- Overall Stockton has won their last three games and has gone 6-2-1-0 in the previous nine games of January

- Not only is Stockton's five-game home winning streak the best in team history, but the three-game winning streak is tied for the longest this season. It's been accomplished two previous times for a total of three

- The Heat have won four of seven games needing extra time. Stockton has won three in the shootout and one in overtime

- Aaron Johnson provided the overtime heroics in the Heat's first OT win in team history on January 23 against Manitoba

- For Johnson it was his first game winner since March 15, 2015 against what would end up being his future team, the Adirondack Flames.

- On January 23, Kevin Poulin earned the first point as a goalie in Heat team history with an assist on Johnson's game winner

- Stockton is 7-0-0-0 at home when scoring first. Despite the Moose scoring first on Saturday, the Heat came back to win for just the third time at Stockton Arena (3-6-0-0)

Approaching Milestones

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

- Garnet Hathaway is 3 points away from 50 career AHL points

- Heat captain Aaron Johnson is just 3 points away from 200 career AHL points

- Bill Arnold is 10 games away from his 100th AHL game

- Emile Poirier is 11 games away from his 100th career AHL game

- Drew Shore is 13 assists from his 100th career AHL assist

- Derek Grant is 18 games away from playing his 300th AHL game

Recently Accomplished Milestones

- Kenny Agostino played in his 100th career AHL game on Friday against the Manitoba Moose

Grant Closing in on Career Highs

While his seven game point streak came to an end last week, Derek Grant finds himself dangerously close to matching, and eventually, eclipsing career highs in goals, assists and points, which were all established last season with the Binghamton Senators.

In 2014-15, Grant had a career high 21 goals, 17 assists and 38 points. His 21 goals were an increase of two from his previous best of 19 done in 2012-13. His 17 assists were also two better than his previous high of 15, which was accomplished during his first full season in 2011-12. His points 38 points last year was an increase of 10 from his previous best of 28 back in 2012-13.

However, Grant is approaching those marks already having only played 26 games for the Heat this season. The Abbotsford, BC native has 17 goals (four fewer than his career high), 13 assists (four fewer than his career high) and 30 points (eight fewer than his career high).

Agostino Unleashes the Bears

After 10 years of Teddy Bear Toss events with the Stockton Thunder hockey club of the ECHL, Saturday's was the first Teddy Bear Toss in Stockton Heat history.

As we watched the first period come and go with the bears still in the stands, the question on the minds of the 7,883 fans in the stands was "who would score the goal and get the bears on the ice?"

Fans had to wait 8:03 into the second as just eight seconds into a power play chance, Kenny Agostino ripped home the one-timer at the top of the right circle past Jussi Olkinuora, turned to the crowd, and waived those bears on! It took 8:30 to clean up the bears on the ice thanks to a number of volunteers including firefighters, SMG staff, Heat staff, the Heat Game Crew, fans and the players themselves.

To put the goal in perspective during the now 11-year event, It was just the third time a goal was scored in the second period to unleash the bears. The last time occurred in Teddy Bear Toss number two when Thunder forward (and second leading all-time point getter) Mike Lalonde scored 4:24 into the second. The previous season, the first in Thunder history, saw Nathan Martz score 12:20 into the second.

Overall, the home team is 6-2-3 on Teddy Bear Toss night. The official count takes place today.

Thank You 2016

So far in the new calendar year, things have gone pretty well for the Heat as the team is 6-2-1 in nine games during the month of January. The team has won all of their home games during this month thus far with two more upcoming this week with Ontario on Wednesday and Bakersfield on Saturday.

The Heat, still tied for the fewest number of home games played in the AHL with 16 might go on the road for three after this weekend, but overall the Heat will play eight of their next 12 games at Stockton Arena.

This year the Heat are 10-6-0-0 at home, outscoring their opponents by 12 and outshooting them by 198.

Rising Up the Goalie Leaderboard

Heat goaltender Joni Ortio has played parts of five seasons for the Flames top affiliate, suiting up for the Abbotsford Heat, the Adirondack Flames and now the Stockton Heat so it was not inconceivable that Ortio would be around the leaderboard for wins during his terrific AHL career.

He started this season ranking ninth all-time with 49 wins, but after earning eight with Stockton, Ortio has surpassed Jean-Sebastian Giguere (51) for sole possession of eighth all-time. That's not the only big name that Ortio could surpass soon as he's one win away from tying Dwayne Roloson for seventh all-time (58) and seven wins back of Curtis McElhinney for sixth all-time.

Ortio has also played in 101 games for the Flames top affiliate which puts him 10th all time, eight in front of former Stanley Cup Champion Mike Vernon who helped the Flames capture the Stanley Cup in 1989. The Finnish netminder is also 10 games away from Giguere for ninth all-time and 11 games away from Levente Szuper for eighth all-time.

The goalie on top of the games played list is Marc D'Amour who has played 198 games with the Colorado Flames (CHL), Moncton Golden Flames (AHL) and Salt Lake Golden Eagles (IHL) from 1982-1986 and again from 1987-1988.

Watch the 2016 Toyota AHL All-Star Classic This Weekend

The American Hockey League has announced that the telecast of the 2016 Toyota AHL All-Star Classic will reach more than 110 million households on Sportsnet in Canada and on a comprehensive network of television partners in the United States.

Produced in high definition by Concom Inc., live broadcasts of the event from the historic War Memorial Arena in Syracuse, N.Y., will air Sunday, Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. ET for the AHL All-Star Skills Competition, and Monday, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. ET for the AHL All-Star Challenge.

John Bartlett, play-by-play announcer for the Montreal Canadiens on Sportsnet, will handle play-by-play duties; Bob McGill, analyst for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Marlies on Leafs TV, will provide color commentary; and Dan D'Uva, the radio voice of the Syracuse Crunch, will be rinkside.

National coverage of the AHL All-Star Classic across Canada will see the Skills Competition on Sportsnet live in all four regions (East, Ontario, West, Pacific) and the All-Star Challenge coast-to-coast on Sportsnet ONE.

In the United States, the league's showcase event will be seen on more than 25 regional networks, including the New England Sports Network; Comcast SportsNet's Mid-Atlantic, Chicago, Northwest and California affiliates as well as The Comcast Network in Philadelphia; MSG Network, serving the New York City metro area and upstate New York; Root Sports Pittsburgh; Fox Sports Detroit, Fox Sports North, Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports Southwest, Fox Sports San Diego and Prime Ticket; Altitude Sports and Entertainment, which reaches viewers across 10 states in and around the Rocky Mountains; and ONE World Sports, which offers best-in-class sporting events to more than 30 million cable and satellite customers across the U.S.

Time Warner Cable customers in New York state, the Carolinas, Wisconsin, Kansas City and Texas will get to see the AHL All-Star Classic on their local TWC sports channels, and My Network TV in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (WQMY-TV) and Antenna TV in Rockford, Ill. (WIFR-TV 23.2) will also air the event for local AHL fans.

In addition, the two-day event will be streamed worldwide to subscribers via AHL Live (ahllive.com).

Records:

Last Week's Record: 2-0-0-0, 4 points

Overall Record: 16-16-1-2, 0.500 Win Percentage, 6th in the Pacific Division

Last Week's Results:

Jan. 22- Stockton Heat 2 vs. Manitoba 1 (SO)

Jan. 23- Stockton Heat 3 at Manitoba 2 (OT)

This Week's Schedule:

Wed. Jan. 27- Stockton Heat vs. Ontario Reign - Stockton Arena (7:00 p.m.)

Sat. Jan. 30- Stockton Heat vs. Bakersfield Condors - Stockton Arena (7:30 p.m.)

Recent Transactions

None last week

Team Leaders

Goals: Derek Grant with 17

Assists: Drew Shore and Turner Elson with 14

Points: Derek Grant with 30

PIMs: Hunter Smith with 56

Wins: Joni Ortio with 8

Losses: Joni Ortio with 8

GAA (Played at least 5 games): Kevin Poulin with 2.26

SV% (Played at least 5 games): Kevin Poulin with 0.924

Team Stats

Goals For: Week: 5 | Overall: 103

Goals Against: Week: 3 | Overall: 108

Power Play: 28-172 (16.3%), 16th in AHL

Penalty Kill: 115-141 (81.6%), 22nd in AHL

Records vs. Opponents

Pacific Division:

Bakersfield Condors (3-4-0-0)

Ontario (1-4-0-0)

San Antonio (2-1-0-1)

San Diego (2-1-0-1)

San Jose (1-4-1-0)

Texas (3-1-0-0)

TOTALS vs. PACIFIC: (12-15-1-2)

Central Division:

Iowa (1-0-0-0)

Rockford (1-1-0-0)

Manitoba (2-0-0-0)

TOTALS vs. CENTRAL: (4-1-0-0)

Calgary Flames (NHL)

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

Record Overall: 21-22-3, .489 Win Percentage, 6th in Pacific Division

This Week's Schedule:

Mon. Jan. 25- Flames at Dallas (5:30 p.m. PST)

Wed. Jan. 27- Flames vs. Nashville (6:30 p.m. PST)

Adirondack Thunder (ECHL)

Record Last Week: 1-1-2, 4 points

Record Overall: 25-10-4, .692Win Percentage, 2nd in East Division

This Week's Schedule:

Fri. Jan. 29- Thunder vs. Reading (4:00 p.m. PST)

Sat. Jan. 30- Thunder vs. Reading (4:00 p.m. PST)

Check out the Stockton Heat Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from January 25, 2016


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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