Grant GRANGER

Abbotsford News

One part of the scoreboard said 48-27 for Abbotsford. The other said 3-1. Those numbers weren't in the Heat's favour. The second set, however, was the one that counted.

The Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the affiliate of the New York Islanders, downed the Heat 3-1 at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre Friday night despite being outshot by a wide margin.

While Bridgeport backstop Nathan Lawson had a strong game in the Tigers net, he didn't have to be spectacular.

"I thought we created enough chances for ourselves to win the hockey game," said a flushed Heat head coach Jim Playfair. "I though we generated some scoring chances, I thought we needed so more traffic at the net to find the rebounds but the goaltender was seeing to many pucks."

The loss dropped the Heat to 10-9-2-1, fourth in the North Division, although the fifth-place Grand Rapids Griffins are just one point behind with six games in hand. Bridgeport is fifth in the Atlantic Division with a 10-10-0-1 record. The teams play again tonight (Saturday). It will be Abbotsford's fourth game in five nights and seventh in 10.

"They just pelted me with shots, which was nice, so I got into it right away," said Lawson.

The Tigers roared out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. Greg Mauldin scored just 1:01 into the game from the slot as the Heat defenders were caught flat-footed in their own end. Mark Flood then floated a shot from the point through traffic for a power-play goal at 11:28.

The Heat finally hit the scoreboard just before the first period buzzer, although Bridgeport didn't see it that way. Abbotsford defenceman Matt Pelech appeared to pitchfork the pads, and not the puck, of Bridgeport goalie Nathan Lawson putting the puck into the net with one second left in the first period. An upset Lawson, believing he'd frozen the puck, jumped up and appeared to chest bump referee Frederick L'Ecuyer as he motioned it was a goal.

"I watched it afterward and it wasn't a goal, it was under my pad," said Lawson. "I didn't know where it was, he was jamming away and then once I twisted then that's when it went in.

"He jammed at me like four times. It's one of those things where it's no big deal, we got the win. [The referee] said he had a clear view of it and it was sitting outside my pads. He's a good ref, and it's a hard enough job as it is."

The Tigers, however, got a controversial goal of their own midway through the second period. Trevor Smith, taking a pass on a two-on-one from Sean Bentivoglio, appeared to kick the puck in soccer style with the instep of his skate from the edge of the crease, but L'Ecuyer counted it.

"I think the referee missed the call," said Playfair, who felt the puck was propelled in by Smith's kicking motion.

Although the Heat outshot the Tigers 24-12 in the second period – 42-21 overall – the quality wasn't Grade A. The best chance was a shorthanded breakaway by Jason Jaffray who put the puck into Lawson's pads. The rest were Grade B, and there were few of those, or lower.

In the third period, the Tigers played extinguished the Heat with strong shutdown defensive hockey allowing only seven shots on goal. In the end, Abbotsford held a 48-27 advantage.

Abbotsford native David Van Der Gulik had a good game. In the first period he made a good along the side boards at the blueline and second later got a good scoring chance. Later in the period his deflection of a point shot went just wide. In the third, he pasted a Tiger to the end boards, a play that led to a good chance for linemate Cam Cunning, but like he did all game long, Lawson made the save without any trouble.

"We shot ourselves in the foot again. It's getting old. We can't start games like that," said Gulik. "We got lots of shots, we did some things right but I think a lot of the shots were from the outside and we didn't have presence in the front, getting in the goalie's face and getting rebound goals."

• Bridgeport centre Bobby Hughes was a healthy scratch not because of bad play, but because he's in the bad books with the police.

According to reports out of New York, he was arrested after a Nov. 4 game and charged with committing first and third degree criminal acts last year. At his arraignment the native of Richmond Hill, Ont., had to give up his passport so he couldn't travel to Canada.

• With the AHL limiting teams to six veteran players, Jamie Lundmark, a first-round pick in 1999 with 259 games of NHL experience, was one of the Heat's healthy scratches Friday.

• Smith is a native of North Vancouver.

• The announced attendace was 3,184. The official three stars were Lawson Van Der Gulik and Pelech.