By Mike Cadarette (Contributor) – Email
The Heat haven’t been all that familiar with life on the road yet this season. On only their second trip outside of the Lower Mainland, the Abbotsford Heat faced off against the Sabres’ affiliate Rochester Americans and Maple Leafs’ affiliate Toronto Marlies this weekend.
On Friday afternoon the Heat were able to pull off a 3-2 win versus the Rochester Americans. The story of the night was Leland Irving’s stellar play stopping 36 of the Americans 38 shots.
Heat captain Quintin Laing would open the scoring for the Heat putting home a rebound four minutes into the second period to tie the game 1-1. Sven Baertschi would put the Heat up 2-1 ten minutes later on an almost identical goal where Horak found Baertschi in the slot.
After an embellished tripping penalty on Dustin Sylvester by Luke Adam, the Heat went on the penalty kill just three minutes into the third period. The Heat could not preserve their outstanding 96 per cent penalty killing efficiency as former Kootenay Ice defenseman Brayden McNabb blasted a shot from the blueline beating Leland Irving over his shoulder.
Five minutes later Paul Byron would get the eventual game-winning goal to put the Heat up 3-2 and secure the win.
On Sunday afternoon, the Heat were in Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto to face what was expected to be an exhausted Marlies team. The Toronto Marlies were on their third game of a back-to-back-to-back, but showed very little fatigue at all in the Heat’s first shutout loss of the season.
Leland Irving did not have the same kind of performance he had on Friday, getting lit up for five goals on 24 shots.
All game long, the Heat looked like the more tired team getting physically dominated and pressured defensively by the Marlies.
After the first two periods, the Heat seemed to have a chance to come back until an offensive explosion in the third period by the Marlies’ Deschamps, Frattin and Acton took away any glimmer of hope Abbotsford may have had.
The Heat will look to rebound from Sunday’s drubbing when they take a flight south to Texas to face the Dallas Stars’ affiliate Texas Stars, the Florida Panthers’ affiliate San Antonio Rampage, followed by the Minnesota Wild’s affiliate Houston Aeros. They will play a back-to-back-to-back set against the aforementioned teams starting on Friday, November 23 before coming back to Abbotsford to face the Hamilton Bulldogs on November 30.
