By Win Wachsmann. The Abbotsford Heat beat the Milwaukee Admirals 2-1 on Saturday at the AESC in front of a crowd of 4,267.
The Heat have now won the last three home games and 4 of the last 7 home games.
The Heat saw three of their premier players return from the Flames this week to help shore up their lineup. Ben Street, Chris Breen and Paul Byron saw the end of their tryouts with the Calgary Flames and they were back in the Heat lineup..
The Heat started strong and at 9:37 of the first period. Right winger Krys Kolanos on a 2 on 1, took a pass from Max Reinhart, went across the crease and slid it under the Admiral goalie Smith to get his tenth goal of the season. Ben Walter got the second assist. This was Krys Kolanos’ 300th game in the AHL. He has 280 points over the 300 games.
The Heat were able to fight off the single powerplay in the first period.
In the second period the Heat had two powerplay opportunities. On the second powerplay, with Admiral Joonas Jarvinen off for hooking, Abbotsford’s Brett Carson got his first goal of the season on a shot from the point on a pass from Mike Matczak. Brett Carson played in only his first game this season after attending the Flames training camp. He played 34 games for the Heat in 2011-12.
Milwaukee replied with a goal of their own at 16:13 when Kevin Henderson took a rebound from Mark Van Guilder’s shot and fired it high past Danny Taylor’s blocker for his 10th goal of the season. Taylor Aronson got the second assist.
The Heat outshot the Admirals 19-18 through two periods.
The third period was scoreless and without penalties as the Admirals pressed the Heat for some time but Taylor was able to stop all 7 of the Admirals’ shots. This was a physical game with each team exchanging some nice hits.
Each team had several great chances in the third period. The Admirals pulled their goalie with a minute left to play to give them a man advantage. The Heat had a chance to increase their score but were unable to score on the empty net.
Danny Taylor stopped 24 of 25 shots while Admiral goalie Jeremy Smith stopped 25 of 27 shots.
Taylor is 4-1-0 in January with a goals-against average of 0.87 and a 0.959 save percentage
The Three Stars 1. Brett Carson (4 shots) Abb 2. Danny Taylor Abb 3. Ben Street (3 shots) Abb.
The Heat are 20-12-3-4 and are in 5th place in the Western Conference.
The Heat have a second game against Milwaukee on Sunday at 4 PM PST at the AESC in Abbotsford
Photo Credit: Clint Trahan