The American populace celebrated Thanksgiving, which didn’t really impact Flames prospects except for a Portland Winterhawks matinee on Black Friday. Anyhoo, the Heat went down to Texas and Calgary’s college prospects went into battle against those stuffed shirts in the Ivy League.

How did they do? To be blunt: rather well.

The Abbotsford Heat headed down to the heart of Texas for a tough three-in-three roadie this weekend. They performed rather well. Friday night they shut down the Texas Stars in overtime by a 1-0 score off a goal by Chris Breen. On Saturday, they travelled to San Antonio and beat the Rampage 3-2 in a shootout off of a Carter Bancks marker. And on Sunday, the club lost in overtime against Houston by a 3-2 score.

All-in-all, Abbotsford earned five of a possible six points and solidified their claim on first overall in the American Hockey League. The team’s top line of Sven Baertschi, Roman Horak and Ben Walter have gone a bit cold, but the team’s depth is showing through. Ben Street had 2 assists on Saturday. Brett Olson had goals on Saturday and Sunday. Barry Brust broke Johnny Bower’s AHL record shutout streak in Saturday’s win. Danny Taylor started Friday and Sunday and made 39 saves over the two nights.

The ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies earned a single point this weekend in a pair of losses to the visiting Alaska Aces. They have won once in the month of November. Mitch Wahl had a goal and an assist on Saturday, but that was the only notable performance by any of the Flames properties all weekend.

Boston College is a good team, but more and more it’s appearing that Johnny Gaudreau is also a really damn good hockey player. The Eagles beat Dartmouth College on Saturday night by a 6-3 score. Gaudreau was in on five of the six markers, potting two goals and three assists (including setting up the game-winning goal). He was plus-five, too. Bill Arnold was minus-one, but that’s okay.

Providence College also beat down some Ivy League nerds, beating Brown 7-0 on Saturday. Jon Gillies continues to be a good goalie, making 35 saves for the win, while Mark Jankowski was plus-two with an assist. Gillies hit a milestone, as he now has 300 saves in a dozen college starts.

Beyond these guys, nobody else did a heck of a lot in college, as Matthew Deblouw’s Michigan State team was off for the weekend.

In the Q, Ryan Culkin had an assist and was plus-two as the Quebec Remparts earned three of four possible points on the weekend.

In the OHL, Patrick Sieloff had a big hit and a fight on Sunday night. Windsor split their weekend games and other than the physicality, Sieloff was held off the scoresheet.

Laurent Brossoit continued his strong November this weekend. The Oil Kings won both of their games. Brossoit started on Friday night against Moose Jaw and made 22 saves for the win. This month, he’s 5-1-1 with a 1.84 goals against average and a .933 save percentage.

Red Deer won both of their games this weekend in extra time and remain undefeated since Brent Sutter returned to his perch behind the Rebels bench. Captain Turner Elson had an assist on the weekend.

Both Brett Kulak and Tyler Wotherspoon had zero points, but each were plus-one on the weekend. In keeping with how their seasons are going, Kulak’s Vancouver Giants lost their only game while Wotherspoon’s Portland Winterhawks won both of theirs by a combined 12-4 score.

Avangard Omsk won both of their weekend games, with Karri Ramo and his back-up splitting starts. Ramo made 17 saves on Sunday as Omsk beat Traktor 6-4. The club sits comfortably on top of the KHL’s Eastern Conference. Ramo has a 16-4-3 record, with a 2.26 goals against average and a .916 save percentage this season.

Lev Praha beat Lokomotiv 7-3 on Friday night. Roman Cervenka appears to be adjusting to the speed of the KHL after coming over from the Czech Extraliga, as he had a goal and was 56% in the face-off circle.

Joni Ortio made 20 saves in an HIFK loss on Saturday night, while Mikael Backlund was held off the scoresheet in a 3-2 Vasteras win.