The Abbotsford Canucks open the second round of the American Hockey League playoffs tonight against the Coachella Valley Firebirds at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, California.
The best of five series will start with a pair of games in the desert before shifting to the Fraser Valley for the duration.

What we know

Manny Malhotra’s team will look to pick up where it left off with a convincing 5-0 win over Tucson on Saturday to punch its ticket to the second round. Five different goal scorers found the back of the net, and Arturs Silovs posted his first AHL playoff shutout. Abbotsford outshot Tucson 39-21, scoring twice on the power play and once while shorthanded.
Sammy Blais led the team with three goals in the opening round – all of them came on the power play. Blais and Arshdeep Bains shared the team lead with four points against Tucson. Bains, who led Abbotsford in scoring in the regular season, did not score in the opening round but chipped in with four assists.
Max Sasson scored his first goal of the playoffs on Saturday. He led the Canucks with 13 shots on goal over the series against the Roadrunners. That total has Sasson second in the AHL playoffs in shots on net.
Abbotsford went 4 for 16 (25%) on the power play in the opening round while killing off all 11 Tucson opportunities with the man advantage.
The Canucks have won 10 straight road games as part of a 17-2-1 run including the opening round.
Abbotsford finished the regular season in second place in the AHL Pacific Division – seven wins and eight points ahead of fourth-seed Coachella Valley.

The opponent

Coachella Valley advanced to the second round with a two-game sweep of Calgary last week. The Seattle Kraken’s top farm team was led by Mitchell Stephens, who scored three of the team’s six goals in the opening round. John Hayden had two of the other goals.
In the regular season, Jani Nyman led the Firebirds with 28 goals while Ben Myers was the team’s top scorer with 51 points.
Coachella Valley was the most disciplined team in the AHL this season, taking the fewest penalties in the league. The club also tied for fourth in the league in penalty killing in the regular season at 85.2%. In the opening round against Calgary, Coachella Valley was shorthanded six times and successfully killed all of those penalties.
The Firebirds, coached by Derek Laxdal, took care of business, winning both games in the opening round at home and were 17-13-6 on home ice during the regular season.
Nikke Kokko got both starts against Calgary in Round One, surrendering just three goals in two games, including a triple overtime thriller in the first contest. Kokko has a 1.11 GAA and a .952% save percentage in his two playoff appearances. He went 20-10-2 with a 2.26 GAA and a 91.3% save percentage in 33 regular season outings.
Game 2 of this series is set for 6 pm on Saturday night in Palm Springs, with Game 3 next Wednesday in Abbotsford.
Make sure to join the Rink Wide postgame live stream immediately following tonight’s game. Rink Wide will provide a full breakdown and comprehensive coverage of the Abbotsford Canucks through the AHL playoffs. When the final buzzer sounds, be sure to log onto Rink Wide and join the YouTube live chat to discuss the game with other Canucks fans. Subscribe to the Rink Wide YouTube channel and never miss an episode.

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