The Abbotsford Canucks Couldn't Seal The Deal And Fell 3-2 To The Calgary Wranglers

The Abbotsford Canucks closed out February in Calgary taking on the Wranglers, and they hoped to get their spark back and land back in the win column following three previous losses.

Nikita Tolopilo started in net again and faced new net minder Waltteri Ignatjew for the Calgary Wranglers.

The Canucks lines started to fill back in, with their first line consisting of Max Sasson, Aatu Räty and Jonathan Lekkerimäki. Ty Mueller was back between Sammy Blais and Linus Karlsson, and Josh Bloom slotted back in next to Chase Wouters and Danila Klimovich. Tristen Nielsen and Danila Klimovich centered Nate Smith to round out the offense tonight.

Abbotsford ran with an identical defensive structure to their last game with Joe Arntsen and Cole McWard kicking things off, Christian Wolanin and Jett Woo following suit, and Akito Hirose next to Kirill Kudryavtsev.

Both teams were fresh off the heels of some losses and were desperate to get the game going early and fall back on the right side of the standings. Abbotsford came out and dominated the game, generating some shots early on, and headed to the first powerplay of the game. Jonathan Lekkerimäki came the closest but the Canucks couldn’t cash in with the man advantage. However, just a minute later, Lekkerimäki tipped in a feed from Aatu Räty in the backdoor, and the Canucks had a 1-0 lead. Abbotsford killed off their only penalty this period and outshot the Wranglers 13-5 by the end of the period. They got the lone goal of the period and were up by one into the second period.

The second period didn’t go as planned for the Abbotsford Canucks. After drawing the first penalty of the game, they were unable to advantage of it before heading to the box themselves. They played a few minutes of 4-on-4 hockey before the Wranglers held the advantage. Just after the Abbotsford penalty expired, the Canucks found themselves with 2 more consecutive penalties, leaving them fighting off a 5-on-3. The Wranglers cashed in here when Rory Kerins found the opening and tied the game up at 1. The Canucks continued to dominate the shot clock, but another penalty came their way with just over 3 minutes left to play in the period. Abbotsford successfully killed it off, but just 6 seconds back on even strength, Parker Bell went top shelf to give the Wrangler a 2-1 lead into the final frame.

With 20 minutes left on the board, the Canucks looked to get the game back. Unfortunately, Räty headed to the box and they had to kill off 2 minutes of a powerplay to get the period going. They were able to hold off the Wranglers and get a powerplay of their own but after the 2-minute advantage expired, Brett Davis scored his first goal of the season, extending Calgary's lead to 2. Some reprieve came for the Cnaucks when they headed on their 4th powerplay of the game, this time finally able to cash in. Danila Klimovich took a shot off the faceoff that brought the Canucks within 1 with 13 minutes left to play. With time ticking, Abbotsford pulled Tolopilo from the net to gain an extra offensive body. Although not letting anything into the empty net, Abbotsford couldn't complete the comeback as they fell 3-2 to the Calgary Wranglers.

The teams will rematch tomorrow night before Abbotsford finally heads home for their 6 game homestand.

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