The Canucks drop their first game against the Coachella Valley Firebirds 4-1

Tonight, the Abbotsford Canucks took on the Coachella Valley Firebirds for their Hockey Fights Cancer night. This was the first meeting between the two teams, who are currently sitting back to back on the leaderboard.

Nikita Tolopilo will get the start once again tonight, taking on Nikke Kokko down at the Firebird’s end.

The Canucks chose to go with an otherwise identical roster from last Sunday’s game against the Condors. Arshdeep Bains and Nils Åman lined up alongside Tristen Nielsen. Ty Mueller continued to Max Sasson with Danila Klimovich, followed by Carsen Twarynski, Chase Wouters, and Nate Smith. John Stevens centered Ty Glover and Cooper Walker, to close out the offensive team.

On the backend, Akito Hirose once again paired up with Jett Woo, with Elias Petterson and Cole McWard on their tail, and Guillaume Brisebois and Christian Felton stuck together to complete the Canucks fighters for the night.  

It was a pretty even first half of the period, with not much happening. There was a penalty to each team in the first 12 minutes, but neither could capitalize. It wasn’t until 16:05 when Guillaume Brisebois ripped a shot from the blue line, breezing right past Nikke Kokko, to give the Abby Canucks a lead and the first goal of the game. This came as Brisebois' first of the season as well. It didn’t take long for Coachella to respond, because just two and a half minutes later, Jani Nyman squeaked one past Tolopilo to tie up the game at 1 heading into the second.

Once again, the second period didn’t see too much action. A few penalties were exchanged between the two teams, and some great chances on both ends, but ultimately, neither team was able to capitalize. The score remained 1-1 going into the final frame, forcing a battle in the third.

The Firebirds were quick to get the lead, as just under 2 minutes into the third, Max Lajoie was able to get one to the back of the Canucks net, to put them up 2-1. The Canucks got were forced to kill a bunch of penalties, leaving them down a man for a few minutes. Some close shots but nothing found the back of the net. With a few minutes to go, Tolopilo returned to the bench to allow for an extra attacker, in their attempt to force an overtime. Unfortunately, it was Max McCormick who secured some insurance netting the empty net goal to give them a 2 goal lead. Just 30 seconds later, Ryan Winterton sent a long shot down the ice, that landed right in the Canucks empty net once again, and the Firebirds were up 4-1.

Despite getting on the board first, the Canucks could not close it out and dropped game one against the Firebirds, 4-1. They will rematch tomorrow night for their inaugural Movember Night, before hitting the road for their 6-game stint in California once again.

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