CANUCKS FALL 5-3 TO CALGARY IN FRONT OF PACKED ABBOTSFORD CROWD

For the third time in four nights, the Abbotsford Centre played host to a clash between the Abbotsford Canucks and the Calgary Wranglers. After battling out to a 5-4 shootout defeat on Friday night, the Canucks took to the ice eager to pick up at least a point in six consecutive games.

Phil Di Giuseppe, who picked up a short-handed goal on Friday night, came into the contest having lit the lamp four times in his last six games.

Alex Kannok Leipert made his return to the lineup for the first time since January 15th, while Arturs Silovs made his third straight, having gone 2-0-2 over his last four appearances. Dustin Wolf returned to the Calgary crease, after sitting behind Oscar Dansk on Friday night.

In front of a packed house, the puck was dropped and the seventh meeting of the season was underway.

It wouldn’t take long for someone to break the deadlock, and for the second time in as many games, Calgary’s Ben Jones would find the scoresheet. 43 seconds into the contest, Jones would fire a shot from the right boards and flew under the arm of Silovs.

No more than seven minutes later, the score would be brought back to level by Linus Karlsson. Capitalizing on a five-on-three power play, Christian Wolanin and Justin Dowling connected with the young Swede for Karlsson’s active team-leading twelfth goal of the season. The shot squeaked between Wolf and the post to tie the game up at one.

The opening frame would come to a close with the score level, despite Abbotsford outshooting the Wranglers 14-8 through twenty minutes.

The Wranglers would pull ahead through a Mitch McLain effort with eight minutes remaining in the second period, which would then be followed up by a Connor Zary tally with three minutes remaining in the frame.

Staring in the face of a two goal deficit entering the final period, the Canucks would cut Calgary’s lead in half in the final two minutes of the second.

Phil Di Giuseppe collected a mishandled Wrangler pass and broke forward on a two-on-one with Vasily Podkolzin. Forced to the outside, Di Giuseppe squared the puck to Podkolzin, who buried home his sixth of the season from a tight angle past Wolf.

Podkolzin’s goal would be the final action of the second period, sending Abbotsford into the intermission trailing 3-2, despite outshooting the visitors 27-19.

Despite constant pressure for the Canucks, Calgary would put the game beyond reach with a Cole Schwindt goal from in between the faceoff circle, followed up by an empty-netter. Danila Klimovich would steal one back in the final 20 seconds, but Calgary would walk away as 5-3 winners.

Five different players scored for the Wranglers, while Di Giuseppe and Wolanin both registered multi-point games. Dustin Wolf stopped 32 of the 35 saves he faced, while Silovs turned aside 21 of the 25 saves that Calgary threw at him.

For the full box score from tonight’s game, please click HERE.

Up next for the Canucks is a pair of mid-week games against the Toronto Marlies on Tuesday and Wednesday night at the Abbotsford Centre. It will be the first time since March 2022 that the Toronto Maple Leafs affiliate will make the trek to the Fraser Valley, with the puck dropping at 7:00pm on both nights.

To purchase tickets to an upcoming Canucks game, please click HERE.