March 15, 2014 - 10:15 PM
ABBOTSFORD, B.C. - Colin Stuart scored twice to lead the Utica Comets to a 3-1 win over the Abbotsford Heat on Saturday in American Hockey League action.
Stuart, who played in Abbotsford during the Heat's inaugural season, now has 15 goals on the year and is tied for third on the team despite scoring just twice in the previous 15 games.
Brandon DeFazio also scored for the Comets for his third goal in four games. Alex Friesen had two assists for Utica (27-27-7), which has won five of its last six games.
Joacim Eriksson made 38 saves in the win.
Ben Street scored for the Heat and Olivier Roy stopped 31 shots for Abbotsford (34-21-7), which has just one win in its last nine games.
The Comets finally opened the scoring at 8:47 of the second period. Yann Sauve's long shot was kicked out by Roy right to DeFazio down low and he made no mistake in beating Roy stick side for his 12th of the year.
The Heat had some opportunities to get on the board. Corey Locke forced a turnover behind the net and centred for Max Reinhart, but Eriksson stopped him and made it look easy as well.
Stuart made it 2-0 at 15:25. Friesen made a perfect pass off the boards, around a Heat defender, to Stuart and he made beat Roy blocker side.
The Comets' captain got his second of the game at 3:05 of the third. He skated to the left faceoff dot and wired a shot short side on the Heat netminder, putting the visitors up 3-0.
The Heat had a two-man advantage with eight minutes to go in the third and finally beat Eriksson. Street one-timed Locke's pass from the slot, blowing it by the Swedish netminder's glove for his 23rd of the year.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014