Olivier Roy makes 24 saves in debut as Abbotsford rolls over Charlotte 7-1

Wednesday, 02.05.2014 / 12:45 AM The Canadian Press

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. - Olivier Roy made 24 saves as the Abbotsford Heat beat the Charlotte Checkers 7-1 in American Hockey League action Tuesday.

Roy was making his first start with the Heat and was seven minutes away from his first career AHL shutout.

The 22-year-old was acquired by the Calgary Flames from the Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 8, but was immediately assigned to their ECHL affiliate Alaska before his call up when Joey MacDonald suffered a concussion last week.

When Joni Ortio was recalled to the Flames on Sunday to replace the injured Kari Ramo, Roy got his chance to start.

Corban Knight had a goal and two assists to lead the way offensively. Max Reinhart and Markus Granlund had a goal and an assist, while Josh Jooris, Blair Jones, Ben Street and Carter Bancks also scored for Abbotsford (30-14-4).

The Heat have now won three straight and are 4-0-2 in their past six games. With the win they move into a tie for first in the Western Conference with Grand Rapids.

John Muse allowed four first-period goals on just 12 shots before Mike Murphy relieved him, making 24 saves for Charlotte (22-22-1)

Philippe Cornet scored the lone Checkers goal.

The Heat opened the scoring at 4:29 of the first. Jooris finished off a great Heat possession, one-timing a pass from Corey Locke in the high slot off the post and in, beating Muse glove side. It's the third straight game Jooris has scored.

Roy made a big save just shy of the eight-minute mark while the Checkers were killing a penalty. Chris Terry cut to the front of the net from the corner and tried to wrap the puck around Roy's right pad, but the 2009 fifth-round choice stretched out his leg to cover the far post, keeping his team up by one.

Reinhart scored at 8:54 on the same power play to make it 2-0. Granlund fed it to Knight, who quickly found Reinhart backdoor for the one-timer.

The Heat chased Muse from the crease with two goals in 28 seconds. First, Jones one-timed Derek Smith's set up from the left face-off dot on the power play. Then Bancks collected Lane MacDermid's rebound before backhanding home a goal.

Granlund scored another power-play goal, taking a loose puck in the slot and whipping one past Murphy at 8:17 of the third to give him his team-leading 20th goal of the season.

Two minutes later Knight deflected Smith's point shot past Murphy to make it 6-0.

Cornet broke Roy's shutout bid with seven minutes to go after he one-timed Victor Rask's centring feed just inside the post.

Street scored his 18th of the season, one-timing Brett Olson's set up at 14:54 to restore the six-goal cushion.

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