against Vancouver. He held his own (62.5% of even-s

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. -- Abbotsfords Sven Baertschi is feeling confident now that the points are starting to come. Baertschi extended his point streak to five games and scored the winner in a shootout as the Heat defeated the Texas Stars 3-2 in American Hockey League action Saturday night. The Bern, Switzerland native was assigned to the Heat by the Calgary Flames on Dec. 12 and had struggled to put up points, but since being matched with Corey Locke and Josh Jooris, things have changed. "Its nice to have points and everything but in the end you just want to play well," said Baertschi. "There were nights before where I felt I was playing really, really well but the points werent there. In the end, if you get in that groove, you feel well and your game is going, then the points come automatic." The Flames 2011 first round choice had just four points in his first 14 games with the AHL affiliate, but has a goal and four helpers during his current streak. "I think hes getting to that point in life . . . where its time to make hay," said Heat head coach Troy Ward. "Theres some resiliency in his game, theres a little bit of swagger in his step, and theres a little bit of confidence. But I also think it comes to a point where every player down here in the American league has to have the ability to say, Thats enough. Its time for me to step forward." With the shootout tied after six shooters apiece, Baertschi beat goalie Cristopher Nilstorp five-hole to give his team a 3-2 edge. "When I looked at the goalie, he has really long legs," said Baertschi. "The move I try most of the time is to go between the legs and it worked out perfect, especially a goalie with big legs (because) they have to be very, very quick. I took advantage of that there." Olivier Roy stopped Brett Ritchie to clinch the win. Roy made 36 saves through overtime for his third victory in five days. "He was huge for us tonight and has been great the last few games," Baertschi said of his goalie. "Its awesome to see him come here, a new organization, and he was in the (ECHL). He gets a chance to come here and hes doing so well so were all proud of him and were glad hes playing so well." Jooris and Derek Smith scored in regulation for Abbotsford (31-14-4), who has won five straight and is on a 6-0-2 run. Hubert Labrie and Brett Ritchie replied for Texas (28-15-6), and Nilstorp made 27 saves. The Heat crowded the front of their net and held the Stars offensive leaders to one assist combined. Travis Morin and Colton Sceviour have an AHL-high 27 goals apiece and Chris Mueller is sixth with 21. "They have some of the most skilled players in the league," said Smith. "When you can get a chance to pressure them, take away time and space, we did that. You cant let guys like Travis Morin and the best players in the league make plays." The Stars have dropped their last three contests and trail first-place Abbotsford by four points in the Western Conference standings. "Weve had a good stretch the last two weeks and passed them in the standings," said Smith. "Now we want to make sure theyre looking up at us for the rest of the year." Corban Knight was issued a penalty for a face-off violation with three seconds to go in regulation and the Stars carried that power play into overtime. Sceviour had the best chance to end it quickly but Roy stayed square to extend the extra frame. "Its an awful feeling, you dont want to be there," said Baertschi of the overtime penalty kill. "But our guys did a great job and our goalie was outstanding there so in the end it was a huge team effort to make sure it went to a shootout." The game marked a battle of the leagues top power-play units with Texas at 27.7 per cent efficiency with the man advantage. The Stars finished 0 for 5 and Abbotsford was 1 for 6. "Guys were getting into shot lanes and blocking shots and when Roy had to he came up big," said Smith. "That save he made in overtime was obviously a game saver. But we did a good job clearing pucks too and when we got a chance to get it down we made sure it went the full 200." Ritchie opened the scoring for the Stars at 10:22. After taking a feed from Jamie Oleksiak, Ritchie fired a wrist shot from the left face-off dot, beating Roy stick side for his 10th of the season. The Heat scored twice in 57 seconds to take the lead early in the second period. First, Ben Street won the draw back to Smith on a power play, and his shot beat Nilstorp top corner. Then Baertschi stole the puck at centre and fed Locke, who in turn found Jooris for a one-timer at 5:30. "Playing with Locke and Josh has been a lot of fun," said Baertschi. "Locke made a great play today." The Stars evened the game at 8:25. Maxime Fortunuss point shot was deflected by Labrie for his first goal of the year. 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Then the catchers seventh home run of the season broke the game open in the fifth. The 41-year-old Colon (10-8) retired the first 20 batters in his last outing Wednesday against Seattle, eventually allowing two runs on three hits in 7 1-3 innings in a 3-2 win.Subban and Price save Habs, Ovechkin’s hot, Shaw emerges from a drought, Fantasy tips and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking. HEROES P.K. Subban – Scored the overtime winner and assisted on Montreal’s earlier goal, both on the power play, in a 2-1 win over Nashville. Subban ranks second among defencemen with six power play goals, has eight points (3 G, 5 A) in the past eight games, and is among the top possession defenceman, relative to his teammates. Among the 53 defencemen that have played at least 750 minutes at 5-on-5 this season: RELATIVE POSSESSION - D PLAYER TEAM CORSI% RELATIVE CORSI% Brian Campbell Florida 55.8% +8.1% Dougie Hamilton Boston 56.4% +6.6% Mark Giordano Calgary 47.5% +5.4% Duncan Keith Chicago 57.7% +5.4% P.K. Subban Montreal 51.7% +5.0% Alexander Edler Vancouver 53.0% +4.8% Chris Tanev Vancouver 53.1% +4.7% Tyson Barrie Colorado 46.3% +4.6% Erik Johnson Colorado 46.3% +4.0% Kevin Shattenkirk St. Louis 53.8% +3.9% While Subban supplied the power play offence, Carey Price stopped 36 of 37 shots in Montreal’s 2-1 win over Nashville. As Travis Yost noted, Price is the Habs’ backbone. Alex Ovechkin – Scored a pair of goals in Washington’s 5-4 shootout loss to Edmonton. Ovi has 11 goals (and four assists) in the past 11 games. He’s one goal off the league lead this season but, over the past three seasons, it’s not even close. Andrew Shaw – The Blackhawks winger scored a pair of goals on 13 shot attempts (8 SOG) with stellar possession stats (23 shot attempts for, 6 against, 79.3%) in a 6-1 win against Arizona. Shaw had one goal in his previous 22 games. ZEROES Devan Dubnyk – It was a mostly unfortunate night for the Wild goaltender, as he was pulled after allowing four goals on 10 shots against Detroit. They ended up rallying to win once Darcy Kuemper was in, but that didnt instill much confidence in the Minnesota goaltending situation. Sedins – Daniel was on for all four Lightning goals against, and Henrik for three, as both had sub-40% possession despite starting most of their shifts in the offensive zone during a 4-1 loss at Tampa Bay. Moss, McMillan, Chipchura – The Coyotes line of David Moss, Brandon McMillan and Kyle Chipchura was beat up by the Blackhawks, posting under 15% possession as a trio, despite starting half of their shifts in the offensive zone. LINEUP NEED TO KNOW Kris Letang – The Penguins’ star defenceman was knocked out of the game by a hit from behind by Flyers winger Zac Rinaldo. Rinaldo is facing league discipline, but Letang’s status remains unknown. Erik Cole – The Stars winger, who has been productive lately, scoring 10 points (6 G, 4 A) in nine games this month, left Tuesday’s loss to Boston with an upper-body injury and could miss some time as a result. Seth Jones – With Ryan Ellis out of the Nashville lineup, Jones has played more than 20 minutes in six straight games, more than 23 minutes in each of the last three. Brandon Manning – Injuries have decimated the Flyers blueline, so they called up Manning and he played 17:20 against Pittsburgh, the second-highest time-on-ice total in his 13 career NHHL games.dddddddddddd In 36 AHL games, Manning has 25 points (6 G, 19 A) and a plus-5 rating with 86 penalty minutes. SHORT SHIFTS Canadiens LW Alex Galchenyuk had a goal and an assist against Nashville, giving him 13 points (6 G, 7 A) in the past 14 games…Capitals D John Carlson had two assists in a 5-4 shootout loss to Edmonton, and has 12 points (1 G, 11 A) in the past 15 games…Capitals D Mike Green also had a pair of assists against Edmonton, giving him 15 points (1 G, 14 A) in his past 16 games…Wild LW Zach Parise scored two goals in a 5-4 shootout win against Detroit, giving him five goals in the past four games…Red Wings RW Gustav Nyquist registered a goal and an assist at Minnesota, and has 17 points (5 G, 12 A) in the past 14 games…Red Wings C Henrik Zetterberg had three assists against the Wild, giving him eight points (4 G, 4 A) in the past three games…Flyers LW Chris VandeVelde scored a goal in the 3-2 overtime win against Pittsburgh and has five points (4 G, 1 A) in the past six games…Blackhawks LW Bryan Bickell put up a couple of assists in a 6-1 win against Arizona; he has 10 points (5 G, 5 A) in his past 10 games…Blackhawks RW Patrick Kane had a goal (the 200th of his career) and two assists in the win over Arizona, giving him nine points (3 G, 6 A) in the past six games…Blackhawks C Brad Richards had a pair of assists in the win, and has nine points (2 G, 7 A) in his past eight games…Blackhawks rookie C Teuvo Teravainen had a goal and an assist, his first multi-point game, against the Coyotes…Capitals LW Jason Chimera had an outstanding possession game (22 shot attempts for, 2 against, 91.7%) in the loss to Edmonton…Stars C Tyler Seguin failed to score, but registered 17 shot attempts (9 SOG) in a 3-1 loss to Boston...Lightning G Ben Bishop turned aside 27 of 28 shots in a 4-1 win against Vancouver…Bruins G Tuukka Rask had 36 saves on 37 shots in a 3-1 win at Dallas. FIRSTS Teemu Pulkkinen – In his ninth career NHL game (and sixth game this season), the Detroit winger notched his first career goal against Minnesota. The 2010 fourth-round pick was tearing up the AHL, with 39 points (20 G, 19 A) in 33 games when he got recalled. Luke Witkowski – As injuries have taken Matt Carle and Radko Gudas from the Tampa Bay lineup, Witkowski, a 2008 sixth-round pick, made his NHL debut for the Lightning against Vancouver. He held his own (62.5% of even-strength shot attempts) in 14:29 of ice time. FANTASY FOCUS There are six games on the schedule for the last night of games before the All-Star break; here are some players to consider plugging into your lineup: Clarke MacArthur – He hasn’t recorded a point in the last three games, so he’s due (facing his former team), and had seven points (4 G, 3 A) in the previous eight games. Teuvo Teravainen – The skilled Blackhawks rookie is still learning the ropes, but has a chance to produce even in a sheltered role, for Chicago. Nathan MacKinnon – It’s been a frustrating ride for the second-year Avalanche forward, but MacKinnon is generating shots (24 SOG in the past six games) and with more shots, goals will follow. Patrick Maroon – In the plum spot on left wing with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, Maroon has five points (1 G, 4 A) in the past four games. Much of the data included comes from www.war-on-ice.com, www.puckalytics.com, www.hockeystats.ca and www.naturalstattrick.com Scott Cullen can be reached at scott.cullen@bellmedia.ca ' ' '