The Canucks drop their final game against the Ontario Reign, 5-3.
The Abbotsford Canucks looked to bounce back against the Ontario Reign after a 2-1 loss on Sunday. The two teams are sitting neck and neck in the standings with 62 points, so a win tonight means someone moves ahead.
Starting in net tonight for the Canucks is Nikita Tolopilo, who currently sits with a 14-8-0 record, and he is battling with Ontario goaltender Aaron Dell. Standing tall in front of Tolopilo are defencemen Nick Cicek and Jett Woo, followed by Matt Irwin and Cole McWard, and rounding out with Akito Hirose and Filip Johansson.
Up front, Tristen Nielsen, Sheldon Dries, and Linus Karlsson remained an offensive trio, followed by Aidan McDonough, John Stevens, and Arshdeep Bains. Chase Wouters centered Aatu Räty, and Marc Gatcomb, and Danila Klimovich slides back into the lineup alongside Ty Glover and Dmitri Zlodeev.
The first period started hot for the Canucks, when Sheldon Dries buried the first shot of the game off a feed from Linus Karlsson just 2 minutes and 58 seconds into the game. This goal became his 20th goal of the season and made it 4 consecutive games of scoring goals. The Reign controlled the puck for the next 7 minutes of the game, not allowing the Canucks to generate a shot on net during that time. However, Filip Johansson picked up the feed from Sheldon Dries and secured their second goal of the goal on just their second shot on net. This goal came as his 5th of the season, and the Canucks were up 2-0 heading into the second period.
The Reign were looking for a second-period comeback, and Hayden Hodgson was the first to be successful as he notched his 4th goal of the season off a feed from Jacob Doty, and sliced the Canucks lead in half, just 3 minutes into the second period. The Canucks ramped up their shot clock but were unable to capitalize on any of them. At the 14-minute mark, T.J. Tynan was able to put one past Tolopilo for his 7th of the season, and all of a sudden the game was tied at 2. A few minutes later, an unfortunate penalty called to Canucks, meant that Francesco Pinelli would fire one home for his 8th of the season, and the Reign carried a 3-2 lead into the third period.,
With 2 points, and a Pacific division ranking jump on the line, the Canucks were desperate to get some back and come away with the win. Arshdeep Bains comes up big and fast for the Canucks, as he picks up the rebound from Aidan McDonough, just 1 minute and 7 seconds into the period, to tie the game up at 3 with his 10th goal of the season. Abbotsford controlled for most of the period, until just over 6 minutes to play, when Samuel Fagemo notched his 30th goal of the year, to put the Reign up 4-3. A late too-many-men penalty was given to the Canucks, and Samuel Fagemo was able to get the empty net goal to solidify the Reign's win 5-3.
The Canucks drop this one 5-3 against the Ontario Reign and look to get something going on Friday as they take on the Henderson Silver Knights.