Heat Weekly

Published on April 3, 2012 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Abbotsford Heat News Release


The Heat earned three of a pos- sible four points this past week in a pair of games with the Chi- cago Wolves (Vancouver Ca- nucks) that drew over 11,000 fans through the AESC doors on Thursday and Friday nights.

With Canucks brass in the rink for Thursday's first of two meet- ings, and the Heat's inaugural Hockey Heroes Night - which honoured Hall-of-Famer Lanny McDonald - it was Jordan Schro- eder who stole the show, scoring twice to earn first star accolades in a 5-4 shootout win for the visitors.

Friday night saw the Heat's first sell-out of the season with 7,044 fans in the rink to watch the Heat exact revenge with a 4-3 OT win that saw Brian Connelly score his first as a member of the Heat with just 11.9 seconds remain- ing to give the Heat a dramatic first win of the season at home against the Canucks affiliate.

The Heat will play four of their six remaining regular season games this week as they continue their pursuit of a Western Conference playoff position. The club opens the week in fourth spot in the Conference, which is the final home-ice playoff position, but Abbotsford is just four points ahead of the American's who are in tenth, just two points back of the final playoff spot. Tuesday and Wednesday sees the Heat host the aforementioned Roch- ester Americans (Buffalo Sabres), before making their lone trip to the Carolinas to face the Char- lotte Checkers (Carolina Hurri- canes).

The Heat split a two-game set in Rochester to open the post-All- Star portion of the schedule - los- ing in regulation in the first game before Clay Wilson spearheaded a 3-2 overtime win that saw him set-up or scored each goal for the Heat. Abbotsford halved a two-game home series with the Checkers in January during which Joni Ortio recorded his first AHL win in a game that saw the Heat score five unanswered goals in the last 21 minutes of regulation to win 5-2.

The Heat have scored 14 goals in their last three games and Krys Kolanos, Ben Walter, Dustin Sylvester and Hugh Jessiman have combined for a total of 21 points along the way.

Kolanos registered the first five point effort of his ca- reer against San Antonio on March 25 and kept roll- ing against the Wolves totaling seven points (5-2-7).

Walter's six points (2-4-6) over the past three games has him on top of team scoring and pushed him to the 50 point plateau for the sixth consecutive year.

Dustin Sylvester and Hugh Jessiman each netted four points (1-3-4). Sylvester is in the top 40 for rookie scoring while Jessiman has a career high 25 goals.

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



American Hockey League Stories from April 3, 2012


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central