Going into last weekend’s action, the Abbotsford Heat had only lost one regulation game on home ice this season — their play at home early this season was one of the major reasons the team led the league after 20 games played. Now, five days later, they can count three. To boot, they dropped two more games in overtime, and all of these losses came at the hands of entirely beatable teams near the bottom of the standings.
After swatting the Hamilton Bulldogs with a rolled up newspaper last Friday night (a 5-1 win that saw scorers Sven Bärtschi and Ben Walter leave early with respective injuries), the Heat have gone dry in the offensive end. Saturday saw them drop a listless 3-0 decision to those same lowly Bulldogs. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights the homeside outshoot San Antonio by a combined total of 70-31, but it was the rampage whose goaltender walked away with consecutive Ws under his belt. Jacob Markstrom was especially impressive in the second period of Wednesday’s game, stopping 17 Heat shots including several at point blank range from Ben Street and Max Reinhart.
Roman Horak looked dangerous all night, but wasn’t able to finish. On one particular shift in that same second period, he whiffed a cross-ice pass with a wide-open net at the lip of the crease, backhanded a shot wide from close quarters, and put a wrist shot directly into Markstrom’s glove while trying to pick the far corner.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the ice, the Heat were treated to something new this season: questionable goaltending. Calgary Flames netminder of the future Leland Irving looked like he was reading tweets about the CBA meetings in New York, because the Rampage were up 2-0 on their first three shots of the game. Impressive rookie Quinton Howden lasered a wrist shot past Irving in the second period on Rampage shot number eight, ending Irving’s night. (Presumably he was better able to peruse Twitter on the bench without his blocker and catching glove.)
Danny Taylor was perfect the rest of the way, but unfortunately for the Heat so was Markstrom. San Antonio blocked shots, too, and made the Heat claw their way to the crease for chances — but when they got there, Markstrom was just too good. Assuming Florida doesn’t close a deal for Roberto Luongo anytime soon, this Swede has a long, perhaps even bright future ahead of him between the pipes for the Panthers.
You could blow off these two games as a hot goaltender stealing four points — and certainly, you’d have support in that argument. But the second game against the Bulldogs was a mental lapse from puck drop to final buzzer. Part of the Heat’s woes surely stems from the momentary loss of Bärtschi and Walter. but they generated more than their share of chances over the course of two games this week.
PS. It’s really too bad more people don’t come out to midweek games at the Abbotsford Sports & Entertainment Complex. The official attendance at Wednesday’s game was 1,877, but inside the building it sure looked like a couple hundred. This is good quality hockey, people. It’s affordable, and you can pretty much pick your seat in a wonderfully appointed building. The folks who do go have a good time. (And they look marvellous, don’t you think?)
