The Canucks Bounce Back Against The Bakersfield Condors With A 3-2 Overtime Victory!

The Abbotsford Canucks look to bounce back and close out their Californian road trip, as they face off against The Bakersfield Condors. Their current season series sits at 2 wins a piece, and Abbotsford hopes to pull ahead in the series tonight.

There are a few notable changes to the Abbotsford lineup tonight. Nothing new as Arshdeep Bains, John Stevens, and Vasily Podkolzin remain together. Aidan McDonough returns to the lineup, sticking with linemates Max Sasson and Tristen Nielsen. Cooper Walker will play his first AHL career game tonight, centering Aatu Räty and Marc Gatcomb, and Abbotsford’s captain Chase Wouters joins Jermaine Loewen and Danila Klimovich, solidifying the front end.

Defensively, Nick Cicek and Jett Woo continue going strong to kick off the blue line. Abbotsford also debuts a new defensive pairing, as Matt Irwin lines up next to Cole McWard. Alex Kannok Leipert returns to the blue line as a defenseman after playing in the front end for the past few games, and he will team up with Quinn Schmiemann to round out the back end.

Arturs Šilovs gets back-to-back starts tonight for The Canucks, and he will face a new netminder, as Olivier Rodrigue gets the start for The Condors.

Chippy start to the game as the aggression from last night seemed to have carried into tonight. Both Quinn Schmiemann and Vasily Podkolzin, found themselves sitting in the box, 5 minutes each for fighting, in the first 5 minutes of the game. Shortly thereafter, Lane Pederson notched his 12th of the season and first of the game after picking up a loose puck and sending it past Šilovs. A couple of great chances for Abbotsford, but they couldn’t quite connect. The Canucks headed to their first powerplay of the game, where Vasily Podkolzin capitalized on a one-timer, after a pass from Jett Woo. This goal was also recorded as Podkolzin’s 12th of the season and first of the game for Abbotsford.

Not much to report during the second period. A stellar performance by Šilovs kept the game knotted up at 1 for the majority of the frame. Nick Cicek also dropped the gloves with Philip Kemp, for the third scrap of the game. Late in the period, Aatu Räty picked up the rebound from Alex Kannok Liepert and passed it to Vasily Podkolzin who was able to net his second of the game and put the Canucks up 2-1 heading into the third.

The Condors started the final period with 52 seconds on the powerplay, but The Canucks successfully killed off the penalty and held the lead. Both teams got some good looks, but neither were able to pull ahead. Looking to even the score, Bakersfield pulled their goalie with just over 2 minutes to go, and Ben Gleason was the lucky Condor to force overtime.

Bakersfield got caught with too many men on the ice around the halfway point of the overtime, and Max Sasson was able to rip one past Rodrigue just 45 seconds later to call game!

The Canucks pull ahead 3-2 in the game and in the season series. They will return home and take on the San Jose Barracudas before heading into All-star break.

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