Gameday Preview: Texas Stars v. Stockton Heat

Texas Stars 8-3-0-1, 17 pts #4 Pacific Division

v.

Stockton Heat 2-5-0-1, 5 pts #7 Pacific Division

November 14th at 7:00 PM

Cedar Park Center, Cedar Park, TX

The last time these two teams met, it was an epic 1-0 goalie duel. At least in terms of personnel, that is not possible this evening. Despite solid play, Maxime Lagace found himself as the odd man out on the Texas Stars roster and is now in the ECHL with the Steelheads. Jon Gillies sustained an injury last week. While it was initially put at 'day-to-day', the Flames later said that Gillies would miss 'some time' with the injury.

Following that announcement, the Flames traded for Kevin Poulin. The new goalie rotation for Stockton is Poulin and Kent Simpson. Both tenders actually played in the Islanders' org last year.

(Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)

Poulin has a task in front of him with this Heat squad. However, he's going to need some run support from his offensive counterparts. Since their first game of the season against Rockford, where they slapped seven on the IceHogs, the Heat haven't scored more than two goals in any one game. The goals against numbers haven't been great, but the Heat aren't providing any sort of goal scoring for the team to work with as a whole.

On Texas' side, they have an opportunity here to blow up offensively and provide another easy night for their goalie. The club is averaging 4.25 goals a game and just got one of their top scorers, Devin Shore, back in the lineup. With the recent outstanding play of Jason Dickinson also added to the mix, Texas could be very dangerous for a team with shaky defense.

Stars injury/call up report:
McKenzie, Faksa (call up)
Elie (day-to-day upper body)
Backman (concussion)

Website: stocktonheat.com
Twitter: @ahlheat