The Canucks Picked Up A Point Despite 4-3 Overtime Loss To The Roadrunners

The Abbotsford Canucks rematched the Tucson Roadrunners, closing out their season series, and looked to get themselves back into the win column.

Nikita Tolopilo got back-to-back starts, taking on Jaxon Stauber for Tucson at the other end.

The Canucks moved their lines around a little bit from last night, hopeful it was the change they needed to pull ahead. Jonathan Lekkerimäki slotted back into the lineup after missing the last few games, and he lines up next to Linus Karlsson and Aatu Räty. Sammy Blais and Danila Klimovich moved into the wings of Max Sasson, and Tristen Nielsen and Nate Smith bookended Chase Wouters. Cooper Walker centered Ben Berard and Dino Kambeitz to round out the offense.

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

The Canucks hoped to bounce back tonight and put their best foot forward from the jump. Unfortunately, just like last night, the Roadrunners strike first, when a battle in the front of the Canucks net ended up with Ben McCartney pushing the puck past the goal line to give them a 1-0 lead on the powerplay under 7 minutes in. The Canucks continued to battle but first had to do so with a man down. As time was ticking on the period, Linus Karlsson ripped a shot from the point that was tipped in by Max Sasson, and the Canucks were able to tie up the game 16 seconds before the end of the first period.

After some rough stuff at the end of the period, the second frame started off with some 4-on-4 hockey. Just as that expired, Austin Poganski was the one who cashed in first in this period, after receiving a pass from Lamoureux in front and tucking it home restoring the Roadrunners' lead early on. After some time, the Canucks found themselves with a 2 man advantage for a minute and 45 seconds. Just as the original penalty expired, Jonathan Lekkerimäki sent a bomb from the slot that went right to the back of Tucson’s net to even the scoring back at 2, 8 minutes in. The action continued with some back-and-forth plays, but a penalty was dealt to the Canucks 12 and a half minutes in, so they kicked into defense mode. Abbotsford was successfully able to kill it off, but just 3 seconds after, Cameron Hebig came up big for the home team, securing his 19th of the season, and giving the Roadrunner the lead once again. With the close calls in the last few seconds for the Canucks, it wasn’t enough to even it up before the conclusion of the frame, and they were down 3-2 heading into the final period.

The Canucks had 20 minutes to get it done. Despite some good looks, neither team was able to get on the board in the first 17 minutes. Now in danger of dropping this one in regulation, Linus Karlsson was the hero for Abbotsford when he shot a sharp angle shot right after the faceoff that caught Stauber off guard. Karlsson tied the game up at 3 and pushed the game into overtime. Unfortunately, they didn’t need much of the extra time, because just 59 seconds in, Andrew Agozzino found himself on a breakaway and secured the game-winning goal for the Roadrunners.

Abbotsford picked up a point but dropped the game 4-3 to the Tucson Roadrunners. The team will reset and regroup before heading to Calgary to take on the Wranglers.

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