The Canucks shut out the Roadrunners in a 3-0 victory
For the first time this season, the Abbotsford Canucks are facing off against the Tucson Roadrunners, after going 2 and 2 with them last season. Aatu Räty is also going up against his brother Aku Räty tonight, on home ice, for the first time this season.
Jiří Patera got the nod and went between the pipes tonight, to make his home-ice debut as an Abbotsford Canuck. Matthew Villalta was in net for the visiting Tucson Roadrunners.
Kicking off the offense tonight were Philip Di Giuseppe, Aatu Räty, and Jonathan Lekkerimäki. Ty Mueller and Danila Klimovich bookended Max Sasson, and Chase Wouters centered Tristen Nielsen and Nate Smith. Deciding to go with an 11 and 7 formation, left John Stevens and Dino Kambeitz as the final two forwards.
On the backend, defensive duos remained the same, with Jett Woo and Guillaume Brisebois, Elias Pettersson and Mark Friedman, and Kirill Kudryavtsev and Cole McWard. Christian Wolanin drew back into the lineup tonight as the seventh defencemen and rounded out the roster.
The first period didn’t see a ton of action. A pair of evenly matched teams went head-to-head and exchanged a few penalties, and some close chances, but the goalies ultimately stood tall, stopping everything that came their way. The game was scoreless after the first 20 minutes of play.
Looking to get on the board first, the Canucks drew 4 straight powerplays in the second period. Matthew Villalta held strong as the backbone of the Roadrunners as the Canucks were unsuccessful in finding the back of the net. It was a goalie standoff through to the third period, with Jiří also stopping another 9 shots, to keep the game scoreless after 40 minutes. However, the Roadrunners drew 2 penalties at the end of the period so that the Canucks would start the third with a 2 man advantage.
The Canucks bounced back with a massive third period. John Stevens was the first to break the standoff, ripping one top shelf right past Vallalta, and the Canucks were up 1-0, five minutes into the third. Five minutes later, the Canucks capitalized on the powerplay when Kirill Kudryavtsev ripped one from the point, to net his first career AHL goal, and give the Canucks a 2-goal lead! The action didn’t stop there, because Jonathan Lekkerimäki picked up the rebound from Jett Woo, to notch his first goal of the season on the powerplay.
The buzzer sounded to call the game, and the Canucks took this one ,3-0, to shut out the Tucson Roadrunners in their first matchup of the season. Jiří Patera stopped all 22 shots that came his way, and he secured his first shutout as an Abbotsford Canuck!
The Canucks will rematch the Roadrunners again tomorrow night, before heading back on the road to take on the Gulls once again.
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