CANUCKS SCORE FOUR UNANSWERED, DEFEAT BARRACUDA 5-1 IN SAN JOSE

The Abbotsford Canucks opened up their short two game road trip in San Jose on Saturday night for a tilt with the Barracuda at Tech CU Arena. Saturday’s meeting would be the third of the season between the two sides, with the Canucks taking both of the two previous games on home ice back in December.

AHL All Star Christian Wolanin entered the contest with 24 assists over his last 17 games, while Danila Klimovich had picked up seven points (3G and 4A) over his last six games.

Arturs Silovs would get the start in the Canucks’ goal, as the Latvian netminder had picked up 11 victories in his last 13 starts. Across from Silovs would be Aaron Dell in the Barracuda crease. Dell came into Saturday night with six victories and in search of his seventh, while his last win came on January 6th in Ontario.

Silovs’ team would give a big hand to helping him make it 12 victories in his last 14, as Kyle Rau opened the scoring just six minutes into the contest. Wyatt Kalynuk let fly a shot from the blueline with heavy traffic in front. Kyle Rau deflected the shot, sending the puck under the arm of Dell for Rau’s eighth of the season.

Following an injury which caused an extended stoppage in play, the first period was called off with 4:37 remaining. That time would be added to the second period where the Barracuda trailed by a score of 1-0.

That would last just eight minutes, as Jeff Viel would tie the game up at one. After a clean faceoff win by Luke Johnson, Viel fired a shot from between the circles over the pad of Silovs.

Viel would immediately after pick up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, as well as Derrick Pouliot who was called for hooking right after the restart.

On the 5-on-3 advantage, the Canucks would make the Barracuda pay with a pair of quick fire goals. Linus Karlsson finished off a slick passing play in front by Justin Dowling, Christiam Wolanin and Nils Höglander.

Karlsson’s 11th of the season was followed up a minute later by Phil Di Giuseppe who fired home the puck into an empty cage. Again, quick passing in front of Dell set up Di Giuseppe for the one-timer from the right circle to push the score to 3-1 in favour of the visitors.

Just over three minutes after Di Giuseppe’s goal, Danila Klimovich forced a turnover behind Aaron Dell’s goal, with linemates Chase Wouters and Arshdeep Bains following suit. The puck would fall to Bains in front, who selflessly squared the puck back across the crease to Klimovich, who jammed home his eighth of the campaign with seven minutes remaining in the second.

After 40 minutes, Abbotsford held a 4-1 lead thanks to three goals in five minutes, as well as outshooting their opponents 21-18.

Despite running into some late penalty trouble, Abbotsford held San Jose at bay. Silovs even stopped a penalty shot Thomas Bordeleau in the final two minutes to preserve a three goal lead. Arsh Bains would grab a late empty net goal to push the score to 5-1, which would stand until the clock expired.

Abbotsford picked up their third consecutive victory, and their eighth in their previous nine games. Arsh Bains, Kyle Rau and Christian Wolanin all registered multi-point nights, while Silovs stopped 25 of 26 shots for a .962 save percentage.

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

Up next for the Canucks is a rematch with the Barracuda on Sunday afternoon. The puck drops from Tech CU Arena at 1:00pm pst in the fourth meeting of the year between the Canucks and Barracuda. Following Sunday’s clash, Abbotsford returns home for a five game home stand on Wednesday, January 18th. The homestand features three games against the Calgary Wranglers, before a pair of mid-week games the following week against the Marlies.

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

Back