On Saturday’s (Nov. 12) Abbotsford Canucks Country Night, Henderson Silver Knights goalie Jiri Patera proved to be more pesky than a broken down pick-up truck on the side of Highway 1.
Patera made an incredible 43 saves to lead his team to a 3-2 win.
Puck drop for Country Night, big and loud crowd at @AbbyCentre for @abbycanucks vs @HSKnights pic.twitter.com/UvKHrTmPK2
— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka) November 13, 2022
There were some positives for the Canucks, as the team’s power play ended a zero for 10 run spread out over two and a half games and scored twice with the man advantage.
Trailing 1-0 in the first after a Jermaine Loewen goal, Abbotsford’s Tristen Nielsen used his speed to cut through the Henderson defence and tie the game up at 16:57. Saturday was likely Nielsen’s best game of the season so far, he produced his second goal and had six shots (a tie for the team-high with defenceman Christian Wolanin).
GET SOME 🚨
— Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks) November 13, 2022
Tristen Nielsen with a beauty and we're tied at 1️⃣ pic.twitter.com/Ixayl2LzEr
Henderson took over in the second period, with goals from Daniil Miromanov and a power play marker from Gage Quinney. Abbotsford did outshoot the Silver Knights 16-11 in the middle frame.
The third period was all Canucks, but the only time they managed to fool Patera was on the power play when Lane Pederson wired a shot home. Arturs Silovs made 24 stops and had another solid start in goal.
Pederson with a perfect shot on the power play makes it 3-2 pic.twitter.com/ulDxj6rHbT
— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka) November 13, 2022
Canucks head coach Jeremy Colliton said that, despite what the scoreboard showed, he liked his team’s efforts.
“I think arguably that was our best game of the year,” he said. “I thought we were excellent for a lot of the game but we just couldn’t score. We had quality and quantity and some open nets that we couldn’t put in. How we played tonight, if we can repeat it over and over again, we’ll get rewarded with goals and points.”
He said the team is still trying to improve on its overall consistency.
The only lineup change from Thursday was scratching forward Danila Klimovich in favour of Matt Alfaro, who collected three shots and played on a line with Yushiroh Hirano and John Stevens.
The game saw a total of 5,392 fans pack the Abbotsford Centre, with many sticking around for live performances from country music stars Karen Lee Batten and Chad Brownlee in the south rise social stage.
This song is what the kids call “a banger” @ChadBrownlee @abbycanucks pic.twitter.com/3nkVBwCDIF
— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka) November 13, 2022
Abbotsford’s record drops to 5-4-0-1 with the loss and they sit in eighth place in the 10-team Pacific Division.
The Canucks now hit the road for the next two weeks-plus, beginning with a game on Wednesday (Nov. 16) against the Laval Rocket in Quebec. The Canucks then take on the Toronto Marlies on Saturday (Nov. 19) and Sunday (Nov. 20) before returning to Laval on Nov. 23. The trip concludes with games in Calgary against the Wranglers on Nov. 25 and 27.
The next home game for the team is on Nov. 29 when the Bakersfield Condors come to the AC.
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