The title is a reference to the parking lot at the Abbotsford rink, apparently things are a little hairy as everyone’s in to check out the Baby Canucks. Twitter and radio was rife with complaints, so there ya go.

First Period

Nycholat is in the lineup tonight. So is Schneider. Sigh. It’ll be interesting to see how much icetime he gets.

Grabner with a nice feed to Shirokov who streaks in and gets a shot that floats high up for a few seconds. Good pace to the game so far.

Schneider with a scary, Luongo-esque moment where he goes to handle the puck behind the net where he almost gives it up, but he manages to hang on and nothing horrible develops.

Grabner with a nice move to avoid a checker, but isn’t able to get a shot off. Shirokov with a pass but nothing doing.

Lots of back and forth action so far, but the Moose only have 1 shot on goal so far.

Here we go! Shirokov drifted in and gets a GOLDEN opportunity. Top line is looking really good so far.

Moose looking a lot better than they did against Hershey so far tonight. Good to see.

EWW. Heat gain zone and Van der Gulik beats Cory Schneider far side to put the Heat up by one. Bad goal for Schneider and I’m sure he’d say as much.

Some idiot bellowing about Luongo’s contract, gets picked up by the house mic. At an AHL game. Funny how cocky Flames fans get after they score a single goal. Heh.

Looking forward to this CJOB Junior Broadcaster thing that’s coming up for the Milwaukee game.

Salcido gets a shot right off the faceoff. Keetley makes the save.

Grabner and Shirokov have been making some nice stretch passes to each other. Liking that they’re working well together.

Ick. Big pinch by a Moose defender leads to a 2 on 1 for the Heat thanks to a goal from JD Watt. Moose need to respond here.

On LABRIE: “He didn’t know his wingers went off, there he goes off the bench.” HOCKEYSENSE!

Desbiens forces a turnover and he manages to shuck past the defender, getting a shot on goal and drawing a penalty. Top line working hard, offense will come if they keep it up.

Grabner manages to get a shot on net to close things out for the first.

Second Period

The Green Men are in attendance. Hah.

Second period is now underway. Moose starting things with a powerplay.

Great odd man rush with the top line, Shirokov to Desbiens to Grabner with a huge blast. Leads to a scramble with Baumgartner and Pope with some shots. Baumgartner looking a lot better.

Not seeing Schneider on the first unit PP. HEH. Remarkably, the Moose powerplay looks a LOT better.

PP over, still 2-0 the Heat.

Moose with a giveaway and Backlund shoots PINGING the crossbar. Schneider getting a bit of puckluck now.

Pope with a HUGE hit on Gord Baldwin which draws the attention of Aulie. They drop the gloves. Nothing really going on either way, though, for either combatants.

Grabner gets grabbed after a play stoppage, which draws a crowd. End result is the Moose are back out on the powerplay.

Oh, there he is. Schneider’s on the 2nd unit PP. First time I’ve noticed him all game thus far.

Shirokov sets up along the sideboards, feeds it to Eric Walsky who SCORES, shoving one in, ending a 28 game long goalless drought. Man, he’s gotta be ESTATIC to have gotten that monkey off his back. 2-1 now.

Desbiens ‘ERASES’ a Heat player along the boards and JD Watt takes offense. Desbiens proceeds to feed Watt his lunch in a LONG tilt. Wow, he just pounded Watt into dust.

Ooooh, great opportunity from Michael Grabner as he gets a feed from Rosa. Skates in but Keetley stones him. That allows the Moose to set up and wreak some havoc in the Heat zone, some good pressure off the rebound and ROSA SCORES!

We have a tie game! And Keetley’s getting YANKED? What? Well, I guess there’s a reason why Jim Playfair’s coaching in the AHL rather than the Flames…

Future franchise goaltender of the Calgary Flames, Leland Irving, now in for the Heat. Per Munzie, he’s on a 6 game losing streak. This could get ugly.

Moose on the PK now as Walsky takes a hooking call.

Seriously nothing going on with this penalty kill. Moose doing a good job at limiting chances. Penalty now over, and the Heat get some chances as Walsky makes his way back into the play. Still a tie game, though.

Heat in some trouble in their own end. LABRIE with a scoring opportunity? Yeah, I’d classify that as ‘trouble’ if LABRIE is giving you problems.

Oberg with a delay of game call, Moose back on the penalty kill. Heat looking a bit better, as Schneider’s making snow angels in the crease. Lots of scrambling here, but the puck stays out. Moose clear and get a short handed chance going the other way.

Penalty over and Oberg’s out.

Mathieu Schneider with a turnover. To Jason Jaffray. Who now scores. Schneider, I’m trying to be nice here, but you’re doing a great job at making me think you suck.

Moose try to press the issue with a minute and a half left, forcing a turnover and Desbiens gets a shot on goal. Action goes back the other way, Schneider with a nice blocker save, play goes back and Desbiens gets a 1 on 1 opportunity but doesn’t manage to get the shot off.

Period almost over, Shirokov trying with one last attempt on goal. Jaffray bounces the puck off the glass, with seconds to go in the second. Faceoff win by Pope and a feed to Maxwell who shoots and save by Keetley.

One more draw and that does it for the second period.

Third Period
Third period is a go.

More back and forth action, but not much in the way of shots on goal. Gotta say that this game has been a lot more entertaining than the 2 games against the Bears this past weekend.

Desbiens in behind the defenders, all alone against Irving. Shoots, but Irving manages to get the leather on it.

Play goes back and Bliznak steals. Skates up and dishes to Keane who shows great patience and ends up passing back to Bliznak. Irving manages the save, though the Heat take a penalty and Keith Aulie sits for 2 or less.

PP Moose. Don’t get much going on as Marty Murray takes his team off the man advantage. 4 on 4 play.

Heat trying to play it safe here, not really trying to force it.

HUGE shot on Desbiens, he’s labouring, ouch. Heat use that to force some pressure on their short powerplay, but nothing develops. Moose still in this.

Lots of back and forth action. Ho-hum.

Bliznak draws a crowd, not sure over what. Philosophical discussion ensues and it’s looking like the Moose have a powerplay with about 10 minutes left in the third.

MATHIEU SCHNEIDER ACTUALLY DOES SOMETHING USEFUL ON THE POWERPLAY! Gets the puck, instead of shooting passes to Oberg who passes it back and Schneider BLASTS it, leading to a huge rebound for Marco Rosa. Oh, my Velouria. 3-3 Game!

Another philosophical discussion going on here as Ramsey gets the highsticked care of Riley Armstrong. Moose with a double minor advantage now. HUUUUUUUUUUGE chance for the Moose here now!

Schneider being a LOT smarter now on the PP. He isn’t just shooting anytime, all the time. Maybe he just needed to get adjusted to a new team or something? Dunno. Some nice passes allow Schneider to sneak in towards the shot and get a nice shot off. It’s all about quality, not quantity!

Moose trying to get too cutesy here on the powerplay here. No real major scoring chances aside from the one shot from Schneider. That was a double minor, by the by.

LABRIE starts making some noise in front of the crease, drawing a crowd in front of Irving.

Sigh. Mathieu Schneider gets beat in another footrace and takes a tripping call to prevent Sutter from getting a scoring chance. I think that’s about 5 or 6 stupid mistakes or errors he’s taken to his 1 point. This is not a ratio I’m happy with. Yes, I’m being a huge nerd about Schneider, but he’s had 2 dumb mistakes this game alone and this is a supposed veteran here.

HUGE SCRAMBLE in front of the crease on the PK. Schneider comes out to challenge a Heat skater and Marty Murray holds the line. Tense moment but the Moose penalty killers are looking good so far.

About a minute left to go in the third, 45 seconds left in the penalty. Looks like we’re going to overtime.

Overtime

Mathieu Schneider is now out on the ice in Overtime. WRRRRRRRRY?

HERE WE GO! Lawrence Nycholat. Feed from Shirokov. Game over!