RESILIENT CANUCKS LOSE 2-1 IN OVERTIME TO MANITOBA IN HEARTBREAKER
ABBOTSFORD, BC - It’s been next man up for the Abbotsford Canucks.
Forward Sheldon Rempal, who has 25 goals and 23 assists in 41 games with Abbotsford this season, was recalled by Vancouver on March 7.
It was announced on Sunday morning that Canucks forward Elias Pettersson had suffered an upper-body injury and was day-to-day.
Vancouver was scheduled to play host to the Tampa Bay Lightning that same night. Rempal was going to slot in and make his season debut with the team. Vancouver then announced it had recalled defenceman Noah Juulsen from Abbotsford as well.
The Canucks lost 2-1 to the Lightning.
Meanwhile, Abbotsford played host to the Colorado Eagles that Sunday too. The Canucks defeated the Eagles 5-4 in overtime. Abbotsford is in a playoff push and fighting to earn home-ice advantage. It got a crucial two points, to say the least.
That being said, it didn’t come without a price.
Abbotsford forward Phil Di Giuseppe suffered a lower-body injury and didn’t finish the game.
There was more.
Vancouver announced on Tuesday that forward Jason Dickinson had been placed on injury reserve and had recalled forward Nic Petan.
Petan, 26, has goals and 32 assists in 37 games with Abbotsford this season. He was going to be in the lineup when Vancouver played host to the New Jersey Devils the same night.
“We’re happy for the guys,” Abbotsford head coach Trent Cull said. “This is our job. We’re here in get our guys to the NHL. That’s their dream… that’s what they want to do. I’m happy for our players doing that. It creates opportunity for the rest of the lineup — our other guys who haven’t had the opportunity before or up until now. They’ll get a chance to play.”
Abbotsford had a game at the same time, playing host to the Manitoba Moose for the first half of back-to-back games between the two teams.
The Canucks went to overtime for the second consecutive game, but this time, falling 2-1 to the Moose. Defenceman Devante Stephens scored lone goal for Abbotsford, which opened the scoring at 7:52 of the first period. It was his second goal of the season. Manitoba’s 2-1 overtime victory over Abbotsford didn’t come without controversy.
It was blatant that the Moose had too many men on the ice when the team scored the game winner.
“I wish we were going to a shootout,” Cull said. “It felt like there were too many men on the ice. I went down the tunnel because I wanted to see the video. I think the refs missed the call but what do you say? There’s no recourse, there’s no video replay. There’s nothing we can do.”
Like many times this season, Abbotsford was resilient.
Despite not having four of their top players, Abbotsford still managed to hold one of the top teams to one goal and was on the brink of victory.
Manitoba came into the game being No. 2 in the Central Division with 64 points.
Not to mention that the Canucks were already missing forwards Justin Bailey, Justin Dowling, Karel Plasek and defenceman Ashton Sautner due to injury for a while.
“I think we did good,” Cull said. “I thought we did really good. We all know that there’s a little bit of a different look to our team. For us to take a good team to overtime and potentially a shoutout, I think it was a really good job.
“Normally, I’d be happy. I just don’t like that that opportunity for the second point was taken away us.”
The missed penalty call left a bad taste… and rightfully so.
UP NEXT
The Abbotsford Canucks (26-19-4-1) and Manitoba Moose (31-17-2-2) will have a rematch in the confines of the Abbotsford Centre on Wednesday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00PM PST.
NEWS AND NOTES
Canucks forwards Carson Focht and Nicolas Guay returned to the lineup.
Abbotsford goaltender Mikey DiPietro made his team-leading 21st start of the season. He stopped 24 shots.
Canucks forward Sheldon Dries has a goal and two assists in the last four games.
The American Hockey League announced on Tuesday that it has re-scheduled the Abbotsford Canucks’ home game against the Bakersfield Condors on April 26 at 7:00PM PST inside the confines of the Abbotsford Centre. It was originally scheduled for Nov. 21 and had already been re-scheduled once to Jan. 10.
BOXSCORE