THE CANUCKS SECURE THEIR THIRD STRAIGHT VICTORY IN A 5-4 SHOOTOUT WIN

The Abbotsford Canucks continued their 3-game road trip of California as they took on the San Jose Barracuda for the first game of the back-to-back.

Some shakeup to the Canucks lineup tonight as Linus Karlsson lines up with Sheldon Dries and Tristen Nielsen. Aatu Raty remains with familiar face Max Sasson, and rounding out their line is Marc Gatcomb. Vasily Podkolzin will play alongside John Stevens and Dmitri Zlodeev, and Danila Klimovich returns to the lineup with Ty Glover and Chase Wouters.

At the blue line, Matt Irwin and Cole McWard stick together as they join the top line, and Filip Johansson returns to the lineup and will play with Nick Cicek. Chad Nychuk and Alex Kannok Leipert will hold things together as the final d-man paring. Nikita Tolopilo gets his third consecutive start for Abbotsford after winning his last 2 starts.

It was an eventful first period that got off to a hot start with Cole McWard picking up the drop pass from Marc Gatcomb to net his 3rd of the season and first of the game just 5 and a half minutes in. Unfortunately, Ty Glover and Chase Wouters found themselves serving concurrent minors, which allowed Thomas Bordeleau to tie the game on the Barracuda’s 5 on 3. The Barracuda were able to strike again on a goal from Tanner Kaspick, who gave the Barracuda a 2-1 lead. Just 40 seconds later, John Stevens gave a backdoor feed to Vasily Podkolzin who ripped home his 15th of the season and tied the game up at 2. Late in the third, Anthony Vincent scored a shorthanded goal for his 2nd of the season, and San Jose was up 3-2 going into the second period.

The second period slowed down as the lone goal was given to none other than John Stevens in a tic-tac-toe passing sequence between Max Sasson, Chase Wouters, and ultimately John Stevens who tied the game with his 12th goal of the season. Neither team was able to put one in the back of the net for the rest of the period, and the game was tied at 3 heading into the final frame.

Abbotsford needed to apply pressure in order to pull ahead, a take home 2 more points. Working out in their favour, Filip Johansson picked up the rebound off of Marc Gatcomb’s shot, and he was able to register his 4th of the season and pull the Canucks in front, 4-3. The lead didn’t last long however, as former Abbotsford Canuck Jack Studnicka was able to knot the game up at 4, assisted by Ethan Frisch and Ethan Cardwell. The game couldn’t be solved in regulation, and once again the Abbotsford Canucks found themselves in overtime.

Despite some great chances by both teams, the goaltenders stood tall and did not allow anything past them, forcing another shootout. See below for the shootout results.

Round 1: Ethan Cardwell: ❌ Tristen Nielsen: ❌

Round 2 Thomas Bordeleau: ❌ Vasily Podkolzin: ❌

Round 3 Jack Studnicka: ❌ Linus Karlsson: ✅

For the third game in a row, Linus Karlsson called game, and the Canucks win this one 5-4 in a shootout. They will take on the Barracuda once more tomorrow, before heading home to take on the Colorado Eagles for Hockey Talks and First Nation nights.

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