By Mike Cadarette (Contributor) – Email
The Abbotsford Heat have directed their focus westward after they collected a rather pedestrian three points in a back-to-back-to-back set of road games against the Chicago Wolves and Peoria Rivermen. In those games the Heat achieved a win and a loss against the Wolves and lost in a shootout to the Peoria Rivermen.
After six relaxing days of time spent with family and friends during the holidays, the Heat went back to work in Chicago to take on the Wolves Saturday evening, coming out victorious in a close 3-2 win.
After a scoreless first period, Ben Street would pick up his seventh goal of the season on a scrambled play in front of the net where he potted an easy tap-in to put the Heat up 1-0.
Krys Kolanos extended the Heat’s lead scoring their second goal of the night at 11:20 of the second period. Kolanos’ line provided his team with the majority of the offense this weekend, an offense that has struggled mightily in scoring goals as of late.
Wolves forward Darren Archibald cut into the Heat’s lead to make the score 2-1 before the end of the second period after having been just called up from the East Coast Hockey League.
After a tight checking start to the third period, Wolves rearguard Zach Miskovic blasted the puck from the point beating Danny Taylor cleanly and tying the game up 2-2 with 8:00 left in the third period.
Witnessing an onslaught of Wolves offense, Heat head coach Troy Ward called a timeout and gathered his troops to discuss strategy. The timeout couldn’t have been more timely, immediately afterwards Krys Kolanos, Paul Byron and Ben Walter put on a passing clinic in the Wolves zone for about a minute before Kolanos instinctively backhanded a blind pass to Byron who sniped the puck just under the cross bar to put the Heat up 3-2. Byron and Kolanos were named first and second stars of the game respectively.
Once again the Wolves would respond with chance after chance as Taylor and the Heat defense held on closely to the 3-2 victory.
On Sunday afternoon, the Heat took on the Wolves in a rematch less than 24 hours after Saturday’s win. However, the Heat weren’t able to replicate their triumph over Chicago as the Wolves took the game 3-2.
Only 37 seconds into the game, the Heat went on the penalty kill after Steve McCarthy closed his hand over the puck, a new rule implemented this season in the AHL. Roman Horak, however, made the most out of the one-man deficit scoring a shorthanded goal on a breakaway just two minutes into the game.
The Heat would continue to take advantage of nervous Wolves goaltender Joe Cannata in his first ever AHL game. With Horak scoring on the first Heat shot of the game, Paul Byron put the Heat up 2-0 on the powerplay, scoring on the second Heat shot of the game with the assists going to linemates Walter and Kolanos. At 17:39 of the first period, Andrew Ebbett cut into the Heat deficit to make the score 2-1 after he took advantage of a Zach McKelvie slashing penalty.
Heat sparkplug Carter Bancks attempted to energize his team dropping the mitts with Alex Friesen, but the scuffle didn’t amount to much.
The Heat would go into the first intermission with a flawless shooting percentage, as they were only able to muster the two goals on two shots in the first period.
In the second period, former Canucks first-rounder Jordan Schroeder scored his eighth goal of the season to tie the game at 2-2. After the first two periods, the Heat only mustered 11 shots on net as opposed to the Wolves’ 24.
Less than a minute into the third period, Wolves captain Darren Haydar collected the eventual game winner for his team on a nifty pass from Zach Kassian to put Chicago up 3-2.
On Monday afternoon, the Heat finished off the last game of their back-to-back-to-back with the Peoria Rivermen, top affiliate of the St. Louis Blues. However, after an outstanding effort from Barry Brust, the Heat fell short in a 2-1 shootout loss.
After a scoreless first period, Kolanos opened the scoring on the powerplay with his ninth goal of the season. The man they call “The Unit” is currently on a very respectable point streak having collected four goals and two assists in his last four games. Kolanos’ expected, yet sudden offensive output is coming at the right time as his team has struggled to pick up the type of goal totals, and wins, that they were collecting in the first several weeks of the season.
At 7:35 of the third period, veteran defender Taylor Chorney tied the game up for the Rivermen 1-1.
In overtime, Kolanos got his name on the scoresheet for the wrong reason picking up a delay of game penalty at 2:41 of the extra frame. Fortunately, Barry Brust stood tall for his team stopping all seven of Peoria’s shots before heading to the shootout. Brust played outstandingly well having stopped 36 of the Rivermen’s 37 shots maintaining his league best .950 save percentage in the process.
In the shootout, only Paul Byron could solve Peoria backstop Mike McKenna, but it wasn’t enough as the Rivermen’s Phil McRae and Jaden Schwartz each beat Brust to claim the extra point.
The Abbotsford Heat direct their attention back to the West Coast as they return to the AESC for an eight game home-stand beginning with Marcus Foligno and the Rochester Americans (affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres) on Friday, January 4 and Saturday, January 5.
