The Abbotsford Heat are on the road this week, with three games of the must-win variety. Wednesday and Friday give the Calgary Flames AHL affiliate a chance at points against the last place Hamilton Bulldogs, while Saturday offers an afternoon tilt against the division-leading Toronto Marlies. The Heat are in tough to make the playoffs, having won just three of their last ten games.
More after the jump.
At the Abbotsford Heat game last night, I got some great shots (and some not so marvellous pictures, too, but that’s the way she goes). Here’s something a little different. Check out this pic of Brad Mills drawing a penalty shot in the second period. Then look below to see a shot by Heat photographer Clint Trahan of the exact same moment in the game — there’s me photobombing the shot behind Danny Taylor in the Abbotsford net.
The Rockford Ice Hogs didn’t just beat the Abbotsford Heat on Friday night. They lined up the nails all neat-like, threw what was left of the Heat’s playoff hopes in the coffin, and started hammering away.
The home side tossed 35 shots at Ice Hogs goaltender Henrik Karlsson, but could only beat him twice. Coming the other way, Abbotsford goaltenders Barry Brust and Danny Taylor combined for just 21 saves on 26 shots. Do the math and you’ve got a 5-2 win for the visitors.
Coming into the game, the Heat sat one spot out of the playoff picture with 11 games remaining. That wouldn’t be so worrying if the teams around them didn’t have five games in hand. At this point in the season, with offensive threats like Sven Bärtschi, Ben Street and Max Reinhart all healthy, they just can’t spend all night making opposing goaltenders look good. Those other teams have a possible 10 extra points up for grabs with those additional games, so the chances of making the post-season start to look very slim indeed unless the Heat run the table. With the Ice Hogs win Friday, these teams swapped positions: the Heat now sit in 11th place in the Western Conference, while Rockford moves up to ninth.
Congratulations to the pride of Coquitlam, BC, Ben Street on this Hockey Day in Canada. He makes his NHL debut tonight with the Calgary Flames at the age of 25 after being called up from his assignment with the Abbotsford Heat in the American Hockey League. He currently leads the offensively-challenged Heat in scoring, with 31 points in 44 games.
Street went undrafted by NHL teams, but earned a professional tryout contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2010 after solid performance with his college team, the Wisconsin Badgers. He won Rookie of the Year in the ECHL Wheeling Nailers before being promoted to the AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Despite more solid numbers there — he got 57 points in 71 games last year with responsible two-way play — the depth chart up the middle in Pittsburgh is reportedly tough to crack. Some guy named Crosby, and another dude named Malkin, for starters.
Street signed with the Flames as a free agent in the off-season with the hopes of doing exactly what he does tonight: dressing for the big club just a few games into the post-lockout season.
Rip it up, big guy.
If you paid any attention to the Abbotsford Heat during the recent NHL labour dispute, you took notice of a couple of things:
1) The Heat gave up fewer goals than any other team in the league.
2) Barry Brust gave up fewer goals than any other goaltender on the Heat roster.
It’s a strange thing, even for longtime fans of the Heat. I mean, who is this guy, right? Brust came in on a one-year contract, but his name seemed to ring a few bells… And Flames fans are asking questions after looking at the numbers for their farm team.
More on Brust’s frustrating dance with the Flames after the jump.
The Chicago Wolves won back-to-back games against the Abbotsford Heat this weekend, including a 1-0 shutout win on Saturday night. Here’s a collection of images from that contest, for your ogling pleasure. All photos by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Check out the rest of the pics after the jump. Continue reading Photo Gallery – Abbotsford Heat vs Chicago Wolves
On Saturday night at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre, the hometown Heat used the ol’ shootout to decide the second half of a back-to-back against the Texas Stars. All-Star goaltender Barry Brust made 39 saves on 40 shots for the 2-1 win — like this one during a first period that saw the visitors gain a 17-9 advantage on the shot clock. Below you’ll find a plethora of pictures from the game, including a still from the winning shootout goal by Krys Kolanos.
For a complete game summary from my compatriot Chris Withers, look here.
Scads of pictures after the jump.
Continue reading Photo gallery – Abbotsford Heat vs Texas Stars
One night after dropping a 3-1 decision against the visiting Texas Stars, the Abbotsford Heat looked to put a few more pucks in a few more nets. They failed to do so, winning a 2-1 shootout decision over those same Stars to maintain their advantage atop the Western Conference.
Abbotsford came out of the gates quickly, perhaps fueled by head coach Troy Ward’s decision to give his players the morning skate off. Three quality scoring chances were theirs in the first two and a half minutes. The Heat held most of the momentum, in fact, until Joe Piskula took a hooking penalty at 6:22. From then on, Texas controlled most of the play, though Abby did a good job of keeping the puck to the outside and limiting the Stars’ chances. The best opportunities for both teams came within seconds of each other following that Piskula penalty. The Stars’ Alex Chiasson tried unsuccessfully to stuff a puck past Barry Brust from about three feet. The rebound was cleared, and Lance Bouma ended up with a short-handed breakaway the other way. Only a last-second stick check prevented the Heat from taking the lead while a man down.
As entertaining as the first period was, with scoring chances aplenty and a scrap between Chris Breen and Francis Wathier, the second period proved quite dull. The teams did manage to get on the scoresheet, with Texas’ Matt Fraser opening the scoring on a 2-man advantage 5 minutes in. The Heat responded 3 minutes later on a powerplay of their own, Krys Kolanos tapping in a gorgeous cross-ice feed from Ben Street. Other than that brief flurry of activity, however, you could’ve taken the period off, and indeed it seemed many of the players did.
Loads more after the jump.
Continue reading Falling Stars – Abbotsford beat Texas 2-1 in a Shootout
The top-of-the-league Abbotsford Heat were back in action on Friday night to take on the decidedly not-the-top-of-the-league Hamilton Bulldogs. With hundreds of Canadiens fans in the building to watch les petits Habitants, Abbotsford arranged to have Habs legend Yvan Cournoyer – he of the TEN Stanley Cup rings – in the building to drop the puck for the ceremonial faceoff. Pucked in the Head absolutely did not intentionally delay our arrival so that we could share the elevator with him and get a picture. Mr. Cournoyer, who I’m happy to report is a very nice man who appeared not at all perturbed by two fanboys asking for his photograph in an elevator, cheerfully commented that he hoped it would be a good game. It was not. Well, not for the Bulldogs, it wasn’t.
Coming into Saturday’s game, the Oklahoma City Barons hadn’t scored in nearly seven periods of hockey. The streak went back to a game last weekend against the Houston Aeros, and the Abbotsford Heat contributed another five and a half periods of frustration for the visitors from OC.
In between were a massive Aeros comeback to win that game, and consecutive shutout losses to the San Antonio Rampage and this very same Heat squad. As overheard in the media room before puck drop, “Will the young stars show up tonight? Probably, seeing as they’re going to be on TV.”
(Want more pictures, video highlights and warblings from yours truly? You got it. But first, buy this book. Or don’t. Your call.)
Continue reading Oklahoma City Barons earn split in Abbotsford
