Five Things: Heat at Barracuda 2.12
HEAT (25-12-3-3) vs. BARRACUDA (14-25-2-2)
7:00 p.m. PST | AHLTV | Spreaker | iHeartRadio | Fox Sports 1280
2019-20 Season Series: 8-0-0-0
All-Time: 23-28-4-1
2019-20 Heat Road Record: 14-6-0-2
2019-20 Barracuda Home Record: 8-14-0-0
Special Teams
Heat:
Power Play – 40-for-159 (25.2%); 2nd
Penalty Kill – 156-for-180 (86.7%); 3rd
Barracuda:
Power Play – 28-for-170 (16.5%); 21st
Penalty Kill – 136-for-169 (80.5%); 24th
2019-20 Leading Scorers
Heat:
Points – Quine (41)
Goals – Robinson, Froese, Philp (16)
Barracuda:
Points – Letunov (30)
Goals – Blichfeld (15)
US
The Heat will look to bounce back from back-to-back losses in Des Moines, with a midweek game in San Jose to wrap up a three-game road swing. Stockton’s line of Alan Quine, Byron Froese and Austin Czarnik combined for four goals and 10 points over the weekend. Quine (3-7-10) and Froese (4-6-10) each enter tonight’s game riding six-game point streaks. Starting tonight the Heat play seven games in the next 11 days across four different cities. Stockton has dropped three straight road games dating back to last month, but the Heat still boast a .682 win percentage, which ranks third in the AHL.
THEM
San Jose limps into tonight’s game riding a seven-game winless streak. Following a weekend sweep in Loveland, Colorado this weekend, the Barracuda are just 0-5-2-0 in their last seven games. San Jose has been outscored 30-13 over the stretch, averaging under two goals per game since their last victory on January 17. San Jose earned a point in their last game out, a 4-3 overtime loss to Colorado. Antti Suomela recorded a goal and an assist in just his second game back from a two and a half month NHL stint. Rookie sensation Joachim Blichfeld potted home his team-leading 15th goal of the season in Saturday’s loss.
US VS. THEM
Stockton has dominated the season series winning the first eight games against San Jose, including a 4-0 record at the SAP Center. Stockton’s goaltending and defense has been superb in the season series, holding San Jose to just 10 goals in eight games. Two of Stockton’s three shutouts this season have come over the last three games against San Jose: 4-0 win on December 31 in Stockton and a 2-0 win in San Jose on January 11 in San Jose. Stockton has six players at over a point per game in the season series: Alan Quine (4-8-12) in six games, Glenn Gawdin (2-7-9) in eight games, Zac Leslie (0-9-9) in eight games, Austin Czarnik (4-3-7) in four games, Matthew Phillips (4-2-6) in five games and Ryan Lomberg (2-1-3) in two games.
HEAT INDEX
Stockton’s special teams have been the best in the AHL this season, dominating the opposition in the majority of contests this season. However, in the weekend series against Iowa, the Wild dispatched the Heat penalty kill by scoring four times against the previously top-ranked defensive unit. These set of weekend games against Iowa were just the eight and ninth times this year that Stockton has been outscored on the special teams.
Stockton will look to get back on track on the penalty kill tonight against San Jose. The Heat have killed off 38 of 40 San Jose attempts in the eight games this season. The Heat have killed off the last 16 attempts against San Jose over the last three games. In Northern California this season, Stockton boasts a 91.9% penalty kill.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Heat – Alan Quine
Alan Quine is rolling right now for the Stockton Heat coming into tonight’s game on a six-game point streak. After recording his team-leading 13th multi point game of the year on Sunday, Quine now leads all Heat skaters with 41 points on the season. The veteran forward enters tonight’s game tied for his longest point streak of the year, the third time this season he has reached a six-game point streak. Quine has had San Jose’s number all season long, posting four goals and eight assists in just six games. His +10 rating also leads all Heat skaters in the season series.
Barracuda – Joachim Blichfeld
The all-star forward has been kept in check by the Stockton Heat this season, recording just one assist in five games this season. Blichfeld will look to reverse the script against Stockton following his team-leading 15th goal of the season in Saturday’s loss in Colorado.
