CANUCKS PICK UP A ROAD POINT IN 4-3 OVERTIME LOSS TO COACHELLA VALLEY
The Abbotsford Canucks faced off with the Coachella Valley Firebirds on Wednesday night at Acrisure Arena.
Sheldon Dries centered Arshdeep Bains and Vasily Podkolzin, while Jack Studnicka lined up with Tristen Nielsen and Linus Karlsson. John Stevens, Aatu Räty and Marc Gatcomb were featured together, with Aidan McDonough, Chase Wouters and Alex Kannok Leipert rounding out the forward groups.
Christian Wolanin partnered with Jett Woo on the blue line, as Matt Irwin lined up alongside Michael Joyaux. Chad Nychuk and Quinn Schmiemann completed the lineup in front of Artūrs Šilovs in the Abbotsford goal. Jack LaFontaine made his Firebirds debut in net on Wednesday night.
Cameron Hughes opened up the scoring in the opening two minutes, as a number of Firebirds crashed Šilovs crease for a loose rebound. Hughes tucked away his fifth of the season, giving the hosts a 1-0 lead.
The Canucks would find an answer with six minutes left in the opening period, as Aidan McDonough gathered the puck and strolled inside from the left boards. Marc Gatcomb slipped away from a defender in front of LaFontaine and got on the receiving end of a centering pass from McDonough. Gatcomb steered the puck into the net for his fourth goal of the season, topping his total of three goals from last year in 19 games.
It was a busy opening period for both netminders, as the Canucks put up 11 and 13 shots respectively. Yet, Hughes’ and Gatcomb’s goals would provide a 1-1 score line at the first intermission.
Coachella Valley re-took the lead five minutes into the second period as Andrew Poturalski beat Šilovs with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle. That lead would be quickly wiped out by a Canucks’ powerplay goal at the midway mark of the contest.
Vasily Podkolzin slid the puck to Linus Karlsson behind the net, who quickly threw it back in front of LaFontaine’s crease. There, he found Aatu Räty who swiped at the puck and found the back of the net via the left post. Räty’s tally would be his sixth of the season, and level the score at 2-2 as the two sides broke for the intermission. Both sides had registered 19 shots through 40 minutes.
54 seconds into the third period, Aatu Räty doubled his tally on the night. His second powerplay goal of the night came from Karlsson dropping a pass right onto his stick, where Räty let fly a snap shot. LaFontaine couldn’t control it, and it spilled into the net behind him for Abbotsford’s first lead of the night.
Max McCormick would equalize halfway through the period, who’s 10th goal of the season tied the game up at 3-3 with 12:33 remaining.
The game rolled into Overtime, where the Firebirds took advantage of a 5-on-3, winning the game with an Andrew Poturalski shot beating Šilovs’ shoulder. Coachella Valley won the contest 4-3, with Abbotsford picking up a point on the road.
Räty scored twice, resulting in his second multi-goal game in the AHL. Šilovs made 25 saves on 29 shots, while LaFontaine made 28 stops on Abbotsford’s 31 efforts.
After Wednesday’s game, Abbotsford will finish up their road trip with a pair of games in Tucson against the Roadrunners on Friday and Saturday night. Abbotsford will return home for their final home games of 2023 against the Ontario Reign on December 20th and 21st. The Canucks will wrap up the calendar year on the road in Calgary on December 28th and 29th, and start 2024 with stops in Bakersfield and Coachella Valley.
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