Stockton has been fighting for their playoff lives down the stretch this season, but their fate isn’t entirely in their hands. The Heat beat Ontario 5-2 last night but they’ll still need some luck and a win tonight if they want to stay off the golf course.
They meet San Jose tonight in a must win game if either team wants to make the playoffs.
Last year San Jose was one of the best teams in the league, but Stockton pushed them all the way to a deciding Game 5 OT in their first round best of 5 series. Shinkaruk missed on a breakaway and then a short while later, the Barracuda came back and scored short handed.
The scenario tonight is as follows: (UPDATED)
San Diego holds the last playoff spot in the division. If they fail to get a point vs Tucson tonight, then the door is open for the winner of the San Jose/Stockton game. Both San Jose and Stockton hold the tiebreaker over San Diego if they can match them in points, so the winner of the Stockton game will make the playoffs as long as the Gulls fail to pick up a point.
I haven’t been watching too many Heat games this year, but I’ll give a best guess for the lineup tonight:
Dubé-C. Smith-Foo
Lomberg-McMurtry-Poirier
Pollock-Findlay-Carroll
Gazdic-Pelley-Nowick
Wotherspoon-Andersson
Kylington-Goloubef
Healey-Prout
Gillies
Rittich
Mangiapane, Klimchuk, Shinkaruk, Hrivik all out with injury as far as I’m aware.
You can listen to the game here, with Kisker’s unmistakable PbP talent:
http://stocktonheat.com/live/
Or you can use AHL live to watch the game
Go Heat Go!