The Sports Corner

Heat will see how resilient they really are

The Abbotsford Heat will take on the Hamilton Bulldogs in Game 6 of the North Division final beginning at 4:30 p.m. PDT. The Heat trail 3-2 in the series and need to win tonight to force a Game 7.

John Lammers was the picture of despair at the end of Saturday night.

The Abbotsford Heat forward looked skyward then covered his head with both hands as he watched Ryan Russell slide the puck into a wide open net to put the Hamilton Bulldogs up 4-2 in the dying seconds of Game 5 of the North Division final.

Literally seconds before Russell sealed what would be an eventual 5-2 Dogs win to send the series back to Hamilton for Game 6 tonight and the Heat on the brink of elimination, Lammers missed a glorious opportunity to tie things at three goals apiece and send the game to overtime.

Lammers was sprung free on a breakaway from about 25 feet out against Dogs goalie Curtis Sanford thanks to a glorious pass from Mikael Backlund.

He deked Sanford nearly out of his pads and was starring down a wide-open 4×6 cage when the puck hopped over his stick and into the corner.

Continue reading ‘Heat will see how resilient they really are’

Penalty kill will be huge for Heat in Game 5

If there is one part of the Abbotsford Heat game that has needed the most improvement throughout the course of both the regular season and playoffs, it is, without question, the penalty kill.

Ranked towards the bottom of the American Hockey League since the first game of the season, it’s also the most crucial part of the Heat’s game plan because, well quite frankly, the team has never and still can’t run up the score like some of their potential post-season opponents in Chicago, Texas or Hershey.

Now, that’s definitely an optimistic view of things after just one game in which the penalty kill was flawless.

Hamilton, with characters of Brock Trotter and David Desharnais and despite the loss of P.K. Subban to the Montreal Canadiens, is still dangerous with the man advantage. Heck, they’re pretty darn good at even strength too.

Continue reading ‘Penalty kill will be huge for Heat in Game 5′

Heat don’t consider themselves underdogs against Bulldogs

There was a positive vibe and loud music surrounding the Abbotsford Heat following the team’s optional skate at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre.

Less than 24 hours after they evened the North Division final at 2-2 with a resounding 4-1 win over the Hamilton Bulldogs, the Heat locker room was full of guys patting each other on the back while country music, a staple all season long post-practice, blared on the speakers.

Times are good.

And perhaps the time is up when people may have looked at the Heat as underdogs against the Bulldogs, the team that finished 24 points ahead of the next best team in the division, the Rochester Americans, in the regular season.

The reputation of underdog, said Heat forward Brett Sutter, never existed inside that dressing room.

“We respected our opponent but I don’t if we ever considered ourselves underdogs,” said Sutter, who leads the club in playoff scoring with 11 points in 11 games.

Continue reading ‘Heat don’t consider themselves underdogs against Bulldogs’