By Win Wachsmann. In the rough second game of a doubleheader, the Abbotsfrod Heat beat the Toronto Marlies 3 – 1 to break into the record books with 23 wins at home.
Barry Brust stepped in for Danny Taylor when Taylor was injured in the second period and managed to hold Toronto to just one goal and save the victory.
Toronto goalie Drew Macintyre made 26 saves on 28 shots as the final goal was an empty net goal by Captain Quintin Laing at 19:49 of the third period.
In the scoreless first period, Taylor was able to stop 6 Marlies shots. The Heat were pressing the Marlies but were unable to get past Macintyre even though the Heat had 4 power play opportunities.
In the second period during a goal mouth scramble just after the 7 minute mark, the Marlies jammed the puck past Taylor but the goal was waved off by the referee. Greg McKegg was penalized for Goaltender Interference.Taylor’s left leg was injured and he was replaced by Barry Brust.
The Marlies kept pressing and kept getting penalties – 5 for the period.
At 14:31 Brad Ross, who had just come off a 10-minute misconduct, fired a wrist shot through Barry Brust’s legs to make it 1 – 0 for Toronto. Dylan Yeo and goalie Drew macintyre get assists.
On the next sequence rookie Carter Rowney answered with his own wrist shot going glove side on Macintyre to tie the game up at 1-1. This was his first pro goal. Krys Kolanos and Mark Cundari get assists.
The Heat had five penalties but kept the Marlies from scoring on the powerplay.
The teams played hard in the third period and at the 10:35 mark, Tyler Ruegsegger took a pass from Cundari and went five hole on Macintyre to put the Heat ahead. This was his third goal in three games and gave him eleven on the season. Mark Cundari got his second assist and Brady Lamb got the other assist.
With less than a minute left the Marlies pulled their goalie to get the man advantage.
Then the Heat’s Steven Seigo got a Closing on the Hand penalty at 19:40 to give the Marlies a two man advantage.
With the Marlies six players pressing the Heat’s four players, Quintin Laing takes a pass from Cundari inside his blue line and fired into the empty Marlies goal to ice the cake.
Mark Cundari’s three assists were good enough to get him the first star.
3 Stars: 1) ABB Mark Cundari 2) ABB Tyler Ruegsegger 3) ABB Carter Rowney
The Heat, (34-30-10) were eliminated from the playoffs on Wednesday.
The Marlies, with four games remaining, are 40-23-9 for the season and will be challenging for the Calder Cup.
The teams played in front of an official attendance of 5043.
The Heat’s final two games are on Friday April 19 and Saturday April 20 against the Oklahoma Barons in Oklahoma. at 5 PM PST.
The games can be heard on Teamradio.ca
Photo Credit: Clint Trahan