Abbotsford Canucks vs Ontario Reign Game Preview

Ontario, CA – The Abbotsford Canucks are making a quick pitstop in Ontario on their way to Henderson to face the Ontario Reign for the first time since their season opener in October. Abbotsford and Ontario, along with Colorado, are tied for third in the Pacific Division, and tied for ninth in the league alongside Colorado and Manitoba. Abbotsford and Ontario are 30-19-2-2 and 30-18-3-2 respectively.

The last time Abbotsford and Ontario met, Abbotsford suffered the biggest loss of their season so far, falling 8-2. Justin Dowling opened Abbotsford’s scoring for the season less than two-minutes into the game on their first powerplay of the season. Rookies Arshdeep Bains and Linus Karlsson both registered their first career points, Bains with his first goal, and Karlsson with his first two assists.

12 different Ontario players registered at least one point that night, five of whom had multi-point nights and captain T.J. Tynan walked away with four total points.

Abbotsford is coming off of their first matchup of the season against the Colorado Eagles where they split the series, registering a shootout win in the second game. Leading Abbotsford scorer Linus Karlsson put up one goal and one assist across both games, with Arshdeep Bains and Marc Gatcomb both finding the back of the net as well.

Nils Hoglander scored the shootout winner on Saturday with a crafty backhanded goal, breaking Abbotsford’s three-game losing streak.

Abbotsford’s roster is looking a bit different since the last time they faced Ontario. Collin Delia, Noah Juulsen, Guillaume Brisebois, and Christian Wolanin have all since been called up to Vancouver with Spencer Martin, Nils Hoglander and Kyle Rau being added to the roster over the last few months.

The last seven of Ontario’s games have been matchups against their three fellow Californian teams, most recently registering two losses and one win in their last three. Ontario fell to Coachella Valley 6-1 last Wednesday but countered it with a 6-1 victory over San Jose on Friday, before suffering a 2-1 OT loss against San Diego. T.J. Tynan leads the team and sits second overall in the league in scoring, with a league-leading 57 assists, and only 7 goals.

T.J. Tynan also lead the scoring in the 2023 All-Star Challenge in early February with 6 total points, leading the Pacific Division to victory. Lias Andersson leads Ontario in goals with 23, good for top ten in the league. Jordan Spence and rookie Martin Chromiak also top Ontario’s leader board with 39 and 25 points, respectively.

Special Teams:

Power Play %

ABB: 19.4%, ONT: 22.7%

Power Play Goals For

ABB: 45, ONT: 45

Penalty Kill %

ABB: 78.3%, ONT: 84.1%

Fast Facts:

Former Canucks prospect Will Lockwood was traded to the New York Rangers on Saturday. He played 28 games with Vancouver and 96 total games with Utica and Abbotsford, registering a total of 54 points in the AHL (25G, 29A).

Abbotsford’s Arturs Silovs was reassigned to Abbotsford after four games in Vancouver where he went 2-2 with an overall save percentage of 0.908%.

Abbotsford blueliner Chad Nychuk registered his first career point with an assist on Marc Gatcomb’s first career AHL goal on Friday.

Ontario’s All-Star T.J Tynan currently holds the longest assist streak in the AHL with 17 assists in 8 games.

Ontario’s Taylor Ward is a Kelowna BC native, playing 4 seasons with the Penticton Vees of the BCHL.

Abbotsford leading scorer Christian Wolanin spent all last season with the Ontario Reign, playing 37 games and registering 18 points.

After their one game in Ontario, Abbotsford will head to the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada to face the Henderson Silver Knights for the final two or eight total matchups this season.

Abbotsford and Ontario will meet again six more times this season. Abbotsford will host Ontario at the Abbotsford Centre four times

Back