Hockey
Wolves “Nip” Heat
Following the game featuring ‘2 minutes for Ruffing” see’s a full house take in the game the game against the farm club for the Canucks.
One could call this a “feature game” as those living in the area get a chance to watch future Canucks as well as future Flames, which in itself is great.
They played hard, but came up a “tad” shy of a win in Thursday’s game against the Chicago Wolves who had all the Canuck brass at the game for a preview of possible NHL players.
The Heat are looking to continue their point streak to three games following a 5-4 SO loss handed to them from the Canucks farm club in front of just over 4,200 fans.
With the single point earned in the shootout, the Heat move up to fourth in the Western Conference, while the Wolves tightened their grip on the three seed and the Midwest Division lead.
The Heat hosted the first ever “Hockey Heroes” night featuring Hall-of-Famer Lanny McDonald who was a member of the 1989 Stanley Cup Champion Calgary Flames.
He was the former Captain of the Flames and spent the day in Abbotsford with season ticket holders, fans, visiting City Hall and spending time with Heat corporate partners.
All in an effort to create an exceptional guest experience for Heat fans. The Heat opening the scoring when Sylvester grabbed a lose puck and fed a pass to Byron for a tap-in.
This was Byron’s 5th of the season putting the Heat up 1-0. The Wolves managed a SH goal at 12:33 but the Heat would take the lead back as their first power play of the game expired.
Hugh Jessiman’s 25th tally of the season (career high) was set up by Carson and Nemisz, who was at the side of the net giving the Heat a 2-1 lead.
The second saw the Wolves score twice in just 25 seconds to take their first lead but Heat Coach Troy Ward called a TO managing to settle his club.
They managed to tie the game less than six minutes as Piskula managed third of the season was a seeing-eye point shot set up by Brett Carson’s second assist of the night and Akim Aliu’s lone assist.
The Heat took the lead late in the second four seconds into the 3rd PP as Walter and Howse fed the puck to Kolanos who managed to record (a career high) 5 point game turning on the red light giving the Heat a 4-3 after 40.
The Heat took two penalties of the night allowing the Wolves to tie the game (4-4) on the second man-advantage with just 7:23 left the game.
Neither team scored in the third or during the 5 minutes OT (four-on-four) sending the game to a SO. Chicago’s goal in the 4th round was the only goal giving the Wolves the 5-4 win.
Irving stopped 30 of 34 shots in the shootout loss and three of four shooters in the shootout, while the Heat put 23 shots at the Wolves.
The Heat were 1-3 on the PP while Chicago were 1-2 on the PP.
Photo by D. Laird Allan – Sportswave’s Official Photographer