ABBOTSFORD PILE ON IN SECOND PERIOD, DEFEAT TUCSON 4-0 ON SEDIN NIGHT
For the first time in over two weeks, the Abbotsford Canucks took to the ice at Abbotsford Centre on Friday night, welcoming the Tucson Roadrunners. The visit would be the third of a four game season series, which concludes on Saturday night, with the visiting Roadrunners leading 2-0-0.
Coming into the contest, Tristen Nielsen had registered nine points over his last nine games, while Noah Juulsen entered on a three-game point streak. Friday night also marked the home debut for Aatu Räty in Abbotsford, while the team switched back to their green jerseys on Sedin Night at the rink.
Arturs Silovs would get the start in goal, having won his last three games while conceding just three times over that span. Ivan Prosvetov would get his 27th start of the season in the Roadrunners goal.
In front of a packed Abbotsford Centre, a special pre-game ceremony took place celebrating Henrik and Daniel Sedin. The puck was dropped soon after, and the AHL All Star break was officially over.
The opening 20 minutes would come and go without anybody finding the scoresheet, but that’s not to say it was a slow first period.
Aatu Räty almost had his dream home debut for the Canucks, as his effort was denied by the toe of Prosvetov pulling off the scorpion move to keep the scores level. A big hit from Noah Juulsen sparked the intensity, resulting in Vincent Arseneau and Bokondji Imama dropping the gloves.
Abbotsford outshot Tucson 12-7, with both teams going 0/2 on the man advantage in the first period. However they both returned to their locker rooms scoreless.
Noah Juulsen would ensure that it didn’t stay that way for much longer, as the Fraser Valley native rifled home a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle past Prosvetov. The slapshot flew over the netminder’s blocker and rippled the netting, giving Juulsen his third goal of the season and Abbotsford the 1-0 lead.
Fellow defenceman Quinn Schmiemann doubled up on the Canucks’ lead less than four minutes later, as the rookie took the pass from Nils Höglander and roofed the puck over Prosvetov’s shoulder. The goal would be Schmiemann’s first in the AHL, coming 15 games into his professional career.
Abbotsford wouldn’t stop there, as Vincent Arseneau collected the puck in the high slot and let fly an effort towards goal. Matt Alfaro would get a piece of it to steer it into the Tucson goal, increasing the Canucks advantage to 3-0. Christian Wolanin would gather his 46th assist on the year on the effort, as Alfaro grabbed his first tally of the season as well.
The Canucks would add one more in the middle frame, this time courtesy of a Tristen Nielsen powerplay strike. Having narrowly missed just moments earlier, Nielsen collected the cross-ice pass from Justin Dowling before roofing the puck past Prosvetov. Nielsen’s tenth goal of the season would wind up being the final scoring action in a high-flying second period.
Following 40 minutes, the Canucks would head to the dressing room leading 4-0, outshooting the visiting Roadrunners 32-14 in the process.
Despite the third period going scoreless, it certainly had it’s fair share of chaos down the stretch. The boiling point came late in the frame with a pair of scrums that saw Prosvetov receive a 10 minute misconduct and have to be replaced with Tyler Parks.
Parks wouldn’t be tested all too severely in the closing minutes, as the clock ran down and Abbotsford sealed a 4-0 victory. In front of one of the largest crowds of the season, Silovs picked up his third shutout of the season.
He registered 21 saves in the victory, compared to the 35 shots that Abbotsford threw at Prosvetov and Parks. Christian Wolanin and Noah Juulsen both picked up multiple points, while 10 different Canucks’ picked up a point.
Read the full game recap HERE.
Up next for Abbotsford is a rematch in the final meeting of the season between the two sides, with the puck dropping at 7:00pm on Saturday night at Abbotsford Centre. The game will be “90’s Night”, with the game featuring a throwback twist. Following that, the team hits the road for a pair of mid-week games in Calgary against the Wranglers on Tuesday and Wednesday night, before returning home for a pair of games against San Jose.
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