It’s been a slow start for Aatu Räty as a Canuck.
But on Saturday, he finally broke through and scored while sporting Johnny Canuck on his chest.
The 20-year-old centre scored the game-winning goal for Abbotsford in a 4-2 win over the Colorado Eagles. He batted a puck out of the air and then later in the game added an empty-net goal as insurance. Giving him his first two goals with the Canucks organization.
Räty wasn’t the only young player who found the back of the net. Both of the young Swedish wingers down on the farm picked up goals in the game.
Linus Karlsson opened the scoring when he tapped in a power play goal that came off a beautiful pass from Arshdeep Bains.
Karlsson broke the Abbotsford Canucks rookie points record with this goal. He is now up to 18 goals and 42 points on the season. Karlsson is one of the only two Abbotsford Canucks who has played in all 59 AHL games this season.
Tristen “DAWG” Nielsen is the other player who’s been in all 59 games.
Nils Höglander also picked up a goal in this game.
Spencer Martin got the start for Abbotsford and made 26 saves on 28 shots.
None were prettier than this paddle stop in the second period to preserve his team’s one goal lead.
Abbotsford will battle the Eagles again on Sunday with puck drop scheduled for 4:00 pm.