Heat: (Credit sureLoss from game 1 thread)
Baertschi - Walter - Horak
Kolanos - Byron - Sylvester
Liang - Street - Olson
Bancks - Reinhart - Ferland Barons:
Hartikainen - Lander - Eberle
Hall - VandeVelde - Paajarvi
Tyrvainen - Nugent-Hopkins - Pitlick
Byers - House - Hamilton
Quote:
HEAT SHUT OUT BARONS 4-0
The Abbotsford Heat defeated the Oklahoma City Barons 4-0 on Friday night in front of a capacity crowd of 7,046 at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre (AESC).
Danny Taylor was perfect in net, stopping all 23 shots to earn the Heat’s second shutout in their last three contests.
The Heat opened the scoring on the power play at 18:50 of the first period on Dustin Sylvester’s fourth goal of the season. Ben Street and T.J. Brodie assisted on the play.
Ben Street scored on the power play at 8:34 of the second period to give the Heat a 2-0 lead. The goal was assisted by Sven Baertschi and T.J. Brodie. The Heat scored again at 17:09 of the second period when a Barons defenseman attempted an outlet pass which ricocheted off a teammate and into his own net. Ben Walter was credited with his third goal of the season.
Krys Kolanos scored on the power play at at 11:23 of the third period. Ben Walter drew the lone assist on Kolanos’ third goal of the season.
Danny Taylor earned his fourth win and first shutout of the season. The Heat outshot the Barons 36-23.
The Heat converted on three-of-nine power plays. The penalty kill was a perfect five-for-five, having now killed 44 of 45 (98%) penalties on the season.
Both clubs meet again tomorrow night at the AESC in the second of the two game series. Saturday at “Rock Your Red” night fans will have an opportunity to win a brand new Honda Fit, courtesy of the Honda Way in Abbotsford. Tomorrow’s game is sold out, but tickets still remain for next week’s games against the Lake Erie Monsters on Tuesday November 13th and Wednesday November 14th.
HEAT STOP STAR-STUDDED BARONS, WIN 4-0 BEFORE CAPACITY CROWD
Hundreds of Edmonton Oilers fans from across Western Canada converged on the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre on Friday evening, to catch a glimpse of a promising young core they hope will rekindle the glory days of Gretzky, Messier and Kurri.
Instead, all they got was a Steve Smith flashback.
Late in the second period of an AHL "Battle of Alberta" between the Abbotsford Heat (Calgary Flames affiliate) and the Oklahoma City Barons (Oilers), OKC defenceman Martin Marincin fired a clearing attempt from behind his own net that went off a teammate's skate and bounced past goalie Yann Danis for a Heat goal.
Ben Walter, the last Abbotsford player to touch the puck, got credit for the easiest goal he'll ever score. It gave the Heat a 3-0 lead, and they would cruise to a dominant 4-0 victory.
Smith, of course, infamously banked in an own-goal off Oilers netminder Grant Fuhr's skate in Game 7 of a second-round playoff series in 1986, boosting the Flames to victory and an eventual berth in the Stanley Cup final. It's one of many enduring moments in a fabled rivalry.
Marincin's blunder, thankfully for him, was on a smaller stage than Smith's, but the Heat were happy to be on the receiving end of a weird bounce.
"I've been on the other side of that, and it deflates you a little bit," Heat centre Ben Street said afterward. "For us, we didn't want to take our foot off the gas at all, but that was certainly a huge help."
Immaculate special-teams play and stellar goaltending have defined the Heat's hot start to the season, and those twin trends carried them once again on Friday as they improved to 7-1-2.
Dustin Sylvester, Street and Krys Kolanos scored power-play goals and Danny Taylor stopped all 23 shots the Barons directed his way, as the Heat prevailed before a capacity crowd of 7,046.
Just as pivotal as the power-play production, the Heat's top-ranked penalty kill stymied a Barons man-advantage unit which features NHL-proven young guns Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins along with sensational rookie defenceman Justin Schultz, the AHL's points leader.
The Heat are 44-for-45 on the PK this season (97.8 per cent efficiency).
"It was mostly just keep doing what we have been doing – try to keep guys like that to the outside and not let them through seams," Street said, breaking down how his team contained the Barons.
"We know they have a lot of one-on-one skill, and we wanted to make sure we weren't caught watching the puck and let those guys make passes through us. If they went around us, we were OK with that. We got some good blocks as well, and the goaltender was great again."
Indeed, while Taylor wasn't tested often, he made timely stops, including a glove save on OKC blueliner Colten Teubert in the first period.
"For me, I haven't started an NHL game," Taylor said. "I tried to imagine this was the NHL, because obviously their first-line power play, almost all of them should be up in Edmonton this year. "So I really enjoyed it, and was really excited for tonight's game, to get out there and play against guys like that. I had a lot of fun."
Considering all the high-end NHL talent on the Barons' roster, it's something of a head-scratcher that they've been shut out two straight games now. They were also blanked 2-0 by the San Antonio Rampage last Sunday.
“I just feel we’re not shooting the puck enough," OKC coach Todd Nelson analyzed. "We’ve got to get pucks going to the net. We’ve got to get greasy. When you go through times like this you can’t rely on the pretty plays. You have to get those greasy goals and a lucky bounce here and there, who knows what happens.”
Any chance of a Barons' rally was derailed in the third period, as they handed the Heat five power plays in the frame.
“It’s a sign of a team that’s young and you have to mature together,” said Nelson. “It’s a learning experience for everybody. As a team we need to channel that aggression the right way.”
ICE CHIPS:
• The two teams renew hostilities on Saturday evening (7 p.m., AESC). While the game is already sold out, it is being broadcast live on Sportsnet One.
• The Heat were 3-for-9 on the power play on Friday, and killed all five of the Barons' man-advantage chances.
• Friday's game drew Oilers fans from far and wide, including an entire busload from Edmonton.
"You're going through withdrawal, right?" explained Earl Petkau, who flew in from the Alberta capital. "There's a guy I work with who has (Oilers) season tickets, so I go to about 10 games a year. I see these kids play all the time.
"All the young guns are here (in Abbotsford), so it was a perfect opportunity."
• Paul Byron, who had missed training camp and the first nine games of the campaign with an upper-body injury, made his season debut for the Heat, reprising his role as centre on a line with Sylvester and Kolanos. The trio had a great deal of success together late last season.
"I thought Paul gave us good energy," Heat head coach Troy Ward said. "He competes real hard, he sticks his nose in pretty hard, and then he gets off (the ice). I like his game. He doesn't long-shift you, he doesn't play winded."
• Schultz, a Kelowna product who chose to sign with the Oilers over the Vancouver Canucks last spring as a free agent out of the University of Wisconsin, was booed every time he touched the puck by a cluster of fans at the north end of the rink.
ABBOTSFORD HEAT THUMP OILERS YOUNG STARS 4-0 IN TILT AGAINST FARM TEAM OKLAHOMA CITY BARONS
The Edmonton Oilers fans who made a pilgrimage here in a couple of busloads came to see the stars of the future.They probably didn’t bank on seeing them all on different lines.
The Oklahoma City Barons are a draw. Enough so about 80 Edmonton fans were willing to make a 14-hour trek. Enough so the Abbotsford Heat sold out their double dip against them before the day of the first game. That’s never happened before, not even with the Canucks farm clubs visiting.
It was quite a mix.
There were Canucks fans who showed up looking to give it to Justin Schultz for picking Edmonton over Vancouver when he had his choice in June. That’s understandable. The kid is smooth, clever and confident. If you were a Canucks fan and you were watching him control his side of the ice like it was a well-behaved dog on a lead, it had to have been frustrating. Especially when you consider this is a guy known for offence. But he didn’t tally a point, and he was the Barons’ best player.
But Schultz was scheduled to be the side show to the three amigos, Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Not only are they the core reason Schultz signed in Edmonton, they are who the fans came to see. Though they preferably would have liked more than one of them on the ice at the same time.
That’s not what they got. Hall, Eberle and Nugent-Hopkins were kept on separate lines. The plan was to spread out scoring. Instead, they got none, losing 4-0 to Abbotsford.
As much as the Barons are a draw off the ice, they’ve been struggling on it. Coming in, they were off to a 5-4-0-1 start, sitting eighth in the standings. They’d scored 31 and given up 31. Turns out, you can’t skill your way up the AHL standings. Stars don’t equate to wins in a league that has an abundance of grinding, especially in Abbotsford. “It’s a little different, it took me a few games to get used to it,” Eberle said. “It’s a little more chip and chase. You got to work for what you get. But saying that, I think we have enough skill on our team where we are able to make plays. “It’s definitely been a little bit of an adjustment.”
Seems it’s a lot harder to make the skill work when it’s spread all over the lineup.
What the Barons got, was skunked. They were outshot 36-23. They were out-chanced by a 2-1 ratio. And they were even out-skilled. The most remarkable play of the night was Sven Baertschi’s toe drag, spin move around Tanner House.
The Barons gave up a power-play goal with 1:10 to go in the first to the Heat’s Dustin Sylvester. They gave up another in the second when Ben Street scored.
With the Heat up 2-0, whatever swagger the Barons had from all their NHL experience was long gone. The Heat controlled the puck and the game. And did it with ease. In one sequence, they kept the Barons pinned in their own zone for three consecutive shifts.
Finally, a desperate Hall got a handle on the puck. But as he tried to skate with it across the blueline and make a play, Sylvester stripped him of it, and had a marvellous scoring chance of his own.
That was rough, but it got worse.
From behind his own net, Barons defenceman Martin Marincin tried a clearing attempt which re-directed off his own goalie and into his net. It was 4-0 and game over.
Yes, it was that kind of night.
Go Heat. Sure would be nice to sweep the double dip. I'm sure the Barons are going to come out a lot harder after being embarrassed last night. The Heat will likely need to weather an early storm.
Really looking forward to this game. Feels like a HNIC evening for me.
Me to. I have been waiting for this game to start since i got up. The wife was trying to lure me out for dinner, a no go with the baby flames on TV. No more listening to the radio for the games. At least not for this one.
Looking forward to watching part of the game tonight, got tickets to see Skyfall later so can only watch a bit, hopefully all the action is in the first period.
Heat vs. Barons @ 8:00PM MT Saturday, Nov 10
