By Mike Cadarette (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: October 24, 2012
The 2012-13 season is looking bright so far for the Abbotsford Heat who are now 3-0-0-1 after this weekend versus the Canucks’ affiliate Chicago Wolves.
Special teams and goaltending have been the stories for the Abbotsford Heat just two weeks into the AHL season. The Heat lead the AHL in both the power play and penalty kill categories.
Boasting 38 per cent efficiency on the power play (six for 16) and having not allowed a power play goal against on 13 attempts, Heat head coach Troy Ward attributes his team’s success to his assistant coaches Luke Strand and Cail MacLean, who handle the power play and penalty kill, respectively. “It’s a development league for coaches too,” explained Ward, “Both of those guys wanted a chance to better themselves [this] year.
“We’ve gotten off to a good start. I think the biggest thing is we’ve had some continuity. It’s very hot and cold though at the American League and right now we’ve done very well and that’s allowed us to get points.”
On October 19 and 20 versus the Wolves, the Heat were able to score three times on seven power play chances. They also stopped the Wolves’ eight power play attempts.
This early success could not be had, however, without the phenomenal play of the Heat goaltenders. Danny Taylor, who started the first three games of the season, flaunts a 93.3 save percentage and a 1.62 goals against average rating.
Taylor was spectacular in his start on Friday night versus the Wolves, but looked rather shaky in the shootout loss, letting in three goals from Jordan Schroeder, Darren Haydar and Zack Kassian.
Troy Ward elected to start Barry Brust the following night in a 4-1 rematch win against the Wolves. Brust, along with his Terry Sawchuk-like throwback brown pads, stopped 25 shots to secure the win.
“Barry was outstanding,” said Carter Bancks, who picked up the game-tying goal on Saturday, “He battles hard, he works hard every day in practice, he’s out there for hours . . . He was really solid back there [and] made a lot of really good saves for us.”
While the goaltending anchored the Heat down on one end of the ice, the offence has not been scarce at the other end. The Heat have scored 16 goals so far this season, which is good for fourth place in the AHL goals-for category.
Leading the Heat with seven points in four games is veteran Ben Walter. Walter, who celebrated his 500th AHL game last weekend versus the Peoria Rivermen, centres a line with two other players who are no offensive slouches either: Swiss sniper Sven Baertschi and last season’s rookie leading point getter Dustin Sylvester.
Baertschi is tied for second in points among AHL rookies with six. He is up there with other big-name rookies, and likely NHL players when the lockout concludes, like Minnesota Wild top prospect Mikael Granlund and Edmonton Oiler free agent pickup Justin Schultz.
The number one line has been the catalyst for most of the Heat’s offence, a formula that simply boils down to chemistry between the three players. “It’s sometimes hard to describe,” explained Baertschi, “We all play a similar game . . . We like to pass, but we [also] like to bring the puck to the net and play offensive hockey.”
Secondary scoring has been key as well, namely Roman Horak, who is now on a four game goal scoring streak after getting two goals against Eddie Lack and the Chicago Wolves.
“Here’s a kid who wants to play in Calgary,” said Ward, “He doesn’t want to say that the 61 games he played last year [in the NHL] was something just to wave away.”
If the first four games is any indicator of the type of season the Heat will have, they will be a resilient bunch with weapons on both the offensive and defensive ends.
The Heat take a road trip east next weekend where they are set to take on the Colorado Avalanche affiliate Lake Erie Monsters (twice) and the Montreal Canadiens affiliate Hamilton Bulldogs after that. The three games will take place back-to-back-to-back from October 26 to 28.
