The Abbotsford Canucks finished up their 6-game homestand tonight against the San Jose Barracuda and looked to close it out with a win to sweep all 6 games on home ice.
Artūrs Šilovs got his turn to take on San Jose in net tonight, and he faced Gabriel Carriere down at the other end.
Continuing to use a similar last night, saw no changes to the first 2 lines. Sammy Blais, Ty Mueller, and Linus Karlsson stuck together, and Arshdeep Bains, Aatu Räty, and Nate Smith remained a trio. Jonathan Lekkerimäki returned to the club and slotted in next to Tristen Nelsen and fellow Swede, Nils Åman. This meant that Danila Klimovich would scoot in next to Chase Wouters and Dino Kambeitz to round out the group of forwards.
On the blue line, Elias Petterson and Mark Friedman continued to stick together, meanwhile, Christian Wolanin moved up next to Jett Woo. Kirill Kudryavtsev and Cole McWard slotted back into the lineup next to each other to close out the final lineup of the homestand.
It was a busy first period that kicked off not in favour of the Canucks. After a penalty call towards Abbotsford, former Canucks Justin Bailey was waiting on the doorstep, where he tucked home the puck from Andrew Poturalski to give the Barracuda an early 1-0 lead. Just under two minutes later, Andrew Portualski walked into the Canucks zone all alone and ripped a shot from the point to extend the Barracudas lead to 2. Not how they drew it up, the Canucks had to muster it up to get those goals back to ensure they wouldn’t be down going into the second period. Around the 14-minute mark, their chance came when a penalty was dealt to San Jose. Nils Åman would be sure to capitalize when he picked up a pass from Lekkerimäki behind the net, to bring the Canucks back within one. Continuing to push the pace, the Canucks found themselves on an offensive draw just a few minutes later. After a clean win of the draw, the puck made its way cross-ice to Cole McWard, where he ripped a shot from the point, that bounced its way into the Barracuda’s net. The teams were tied at 2, heading into the second period.
The 2-man advantages were the difference makers in this period. The Canucks were on a 5-on-3 to start the period. They made their way into the offensive zone and posted some great chances, but it wasn’t until the advantage was about to expire that Aatu Räty jammed home the loose puck in front to give Abbotsford their first lead of the game. No scoring changes in the middle of the frame, but as time was ticking down, the Barracuda found themselves on a 5-on-3 this time. Just like the Canucks, they took complete advantage of it, when Luca Cagnoni when a shot from the slot made it past Šilovs to tie the game up once again. The teams were locked at 3, with one more period to play.
The Canucks were just 20 minutes away from completing their sweep of the homestand. They faced a battle early on when a misplay left the Canucks net wide open for Ethan Cardwell to bring them ahead just 7 seconds in. That didn’t stop the Canucks because just a minute later, Linus Karlsson deflected in a perfectly placed shot from Ty Mueller to even the scoring once again. Time was running out and it was a race to avoid overtime but there was no quit in the Canucks game. With just 38 seconds left in the game, Jonathan Lekkerimäki was the hero, when he received the pass from Arshdeep Bains to secure the game-winning goal! Time expired the Canucks completed their sweep, winning all 6 games at home, completed with a 5-4 win over the San Jose Barracuda!
The Canucks will take a few days before heading down south to face the Tucson Roadrunners and the Coachella Valley Firebirds! . To purchase tickets to an upcoming game, click HERE.
