1. Taylor Tight: Give Danny Taylor five shutouts on the season with a 22 save performance on home ice Friday night. Taylor’s best may have been a huge glove save to keep the score 1-0 in the third period, but he was poised in the numerous scrums around the Heat net. Taylor has transitioned from an unknown stranger added in early December, to a fan favorite in Abbotsford, where the man in the white mask was named first star in his fifth straight win.
2. Great Killers: While the scoresheet will show an impressive, but common 0/3 for the vistor’s power play, the stats don’t do justice to the job the Heat did in erasing nine minutes in penalties. A five-minute boarding major wrongly assigned to Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (It was Laing who drilled his man into the end wall) left the Heat a hefty task, but they managed to erase the Marlies 5:00 power play. Just 28 seconds after erasing the major, the drained penalty killers had to get back over the boards to kill of a Piskula minor for interference, but did the job.
3. Hugh’s 27th: Hugh Jessiman played a large role in the win, as his 27th of the season pushed his career-high for goals seven beyond his previous best, while he fed his linemates the puck to draw an assist on the important Rheault strike that made it 2-0. After being caught on the outside of the veteran numbers game in previous weeks, the big man has responded with two goals and an assist in two games since being reinserted to the line-up.
