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Heat Bounce Bulldogs 4-1

November 18, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Abbotsford Heat News Release


ABBOTSFORD BC - The Abbotsford HEAT opened up a four game home stand with an impressive 4-2 win over their North Division Rivals, the Hamilton Bulldogs on Tuesday night.

Puck possession and a complete game effort were the keys to victory for the HEAT on this evening. The Heat pounced on the Dogs late in the opening period on the power play. Jason Jaffray was able to take a pretty feed from Carsen Germyn cross ice and bury a slap shot past Bulldog goaltender Cedric Desjardins. For Jaffray, it was his team leading ninth goal of the season and gave the HEAT a 1-0 lead after the opening period.

In the second period, the HEAT was able to control the play in large part to their defence making smart reads and good first passes out of their zone. Offensively, the d-line also did a great job in opening up shooting lanes by distributing the puck point to point. Case in point, both HEAT goals in the second period were generated by John Negrin and Matt Pelech working the point. On the HEAT's second goal, Negrin moved the puck quickly from the left point to Pelech at the right point. Pelech was able to move in and fire a shot towards the Bulldog net, which was tipped in by Kris Chucko. For Burnaby BC's Chucko, it was his sixth goal of the year, and including his shootout winner against the Bulldogs two weeks ago, Chucko now has four game winning goals this season.

Later in period two, it was Negrin's turn to once again contribute with a goal. The West Vancouver product took a point to point feed from Matt Pelech. Negrin then walked in from the left point and found a home for the puck inside the left post in front of a screened Desjardins. For Negrin, it was his third goal of the season and his third consecutive game scoring a goal. More importantly, it gave the HEAT a three goal lead heading to the third period.

In the final frame, defender Keith Seabrook jumped into action. Supporting a rush started by HEAT forward Colin Stuart, Seabrook shook of the check of Hamilton defender Yannick Weber and fired a shot on Bulldog goaltender Curtis Sanford, who replaced Desjardins after the Negrin goal late in the second period. Seabrook's shot was kicked aside by Sanford onto the waiting stick of Cam Cunning, who was driving hard to the Dogs net. Cunning was able to convert his own rebound to give the HEAT a 4-0 lead.

A late goal by the Dogs spoiled another fine performance in the HEAT nets by Leland Irving. Irving stopped thirty three of thirty four shots, including a breakaway and multiple chances off the stick of Hamilton forward Mike Glumac. Irving picks up his eighth win of the season and the HEAT pick up their tenth win overall this campaign.

With the win, the HEAT leaped past the Dogs into second place in the North Division. These two teams will match up again on Wednesday night in Abbotsford as the HEAT will look to make it three straight over their Steeltown rivals.

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Victoria, BC - The Victoria Salmon Kings, announced today that goaltender Matt Keetley has been named the Reebok Hockey ECHL Goaltender of the Week for November 9 - 15.

Keetley, who was recalled to the AHL's Abbotsford Heat on Monday, appeared in three games for the Salmon Kings this past week where he posted a 2-1-0 record with a 1.01 goals against average, a 0.965 save percentage, and two shutouts. Keetley stopped all 35 shots he faced in a 2-0 victory over the Ontario Reign on November 11, and recorded an 18-save blanking of the same Ontario team three days later on November 14. The goaltender's two shutouts lead the ECHL.

The Medicine Hat, Alberta native has also played in two games with Abbotsford this season posting a 0-1-0 record while registering a 4.81 goals against average and 0.884 save percentage.

Selected in the fifth round (158th overall) by the Calgary Flames in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, he played in the ECHL in 2008-09 and was 1-3-3 with a goals-against average of 2.66 and a save percentage of .930 in seven games for Las Vegas while also playing in the AHL where he was 8-18-4 with two shutouts and a goals-against average of 2.85 in 33 games for Quad City. He played in Quad City as a rookie and was 10-8-3 with two shutouts, a goals-against average of 2.85 and a save percentage of .912 in 26 games and also appeared in one game for Calgary.

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