Abbotsford Heat captain Dean Arsene, pictured above during a preseason scrap, and his team will try to turn around their recent fortunes vs. the Utica Comets.

image credit: John Morrow file photo

The Abbotsford Heat and Utica Comets have been at opposite ends of the AHL standings throughout the 2013-14 campaign, but you'd never guess based on their recent head-to-head match-ups.

The Comets (13-20-5), Western Conference cellar-dwellers all season long, have been awfully hard on the Heat, despite the fact that Abbotsford (26-14-2) has occupied the upper reaches of the standings.

The Heat won their first two games vs. the Vancouver Canucks' new affiliate this season, but the Comets have since fashioned a four-game win streak vs. Abbotsford, including three victories in regulation.

Heat head coach Troy Ward believes a variety of factors have played into his team's recent results against Utica. The Comets are a big, physical, veteran outfit, and as such are a tough match-up for Abby's smallish forward corps. There's also a timing factor the Heat's recent dates vs. Utica have coincided with team slumps and NHL recalls.

Ward also believes his squad has played better at times against the Comets than the final score has indicated on Dec. 20, for instance, the coaching staff had the scoring chances at 12-8 for the Heat, but they lost 3-0 with an empty-net goal.

"It becomes almost a mental thing, like, 'Oh here we go, it's Utica, we suck against these guys,'" Ward said earlier this week, looking ahead to Friday-Saturday match-ups with the Comets at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre (7 p.m. start both nights).

"It isn't like they've dominated us. It's just timeliness of goals, our maturity level, and the fact we've played them when we haven't been all that healthy mentally."

"The best way I can say it is, they're a professional hockey team with professional athletes, and so are we. You've got to be ready for everybody, and anybody can beat anybody on a given night."

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News and notes: Heat aim to reverse their fortunes vs. Canucks affiliate