A shift-by-shift breakdown of Aatu Raty’s second game with the Abbotsford Canucks

My my, how the turntables.

16.5 hours and three call-ups later, a dramatically different Abbotsford Canucks lineup hit the ice for a rematch against the San Jose Barracuda.

Let’s get into the game and see how Raty fared in his sophomore follow-up!

Abbotsford opened the frame with three minutes of dominant offensive zone possession. The Raty-Rau-Nielsen line took over, and San Jose then managed to generate a run of possession inside the Canucks’ zone.

Raty did well to lift sticks and tie up his opposition. However, the shift did lead to three shot attempts for San Jose.

An early tripping penalty against Danila Klimovich saw Jeremy Colliton jumbling the lines when the game returned to 5v5. Then, Klimovich took his second straight penalty of the period, resulting in a goal against and a lengthy break between shifts for Raty.

Off the centre ice faceoff following Derrick Pouliot’s goal, Raty took his second shift of the night after a five-minute wait. Raty’s second shift was unremarkable, with San Jose generating a shot attempt before going offside on a zone entry.

Through the opening ten minutes, Raty played two shifts for less than two minutes of total ice time. Then Vinny Arseneau put Abbotsford back on the penalty kill with a brutal hit on San Jose’s Patrick Sieloff.

Raty earned second-shift PK reps, where he showed noticeable pop in his skating while chasing the puck around the boards. Raty cleared the puck out of the d-zone to allow Abbotsford a full line change.

Past the midway point of the period, Arshdeep Bains drew a cross-checking minor against Patrick Sieloff to give the Canucks their second power play opportunity. With Vasily Podkolzin, Nils Aman, and Phil Di Giuseppe recalled to Vancouver, Aatu Raty earned his first look on the man advantage.

After losing the zone early in their minute of power play time, Raty led the re-entry down the left wing for a dump-in to the endboards, retrieved by Arshdeep Bains, with Raty offering follow-up support below the goal line to get the puck back to the blueline for Kyle Rau.

The second unit then combined for the most dangerous attempt of either unit during the period. Playing the net front role, Raty baited in two defenders for a blind through-the-legs drop pass to Kyle Rau in the slot. The ensuing scramble from San Jose opened up the left wing for Klimovich’s dangerous backhander on goal.

Raty looked decent around the net front on the power play. Though it was a small sample size, Raty utilized his frame well to stand his ground in front of San Jose’s Strauss Mann. The blind backhand pass was the best display of Raty’s offensive IQ and awareness through his young Abbotsford career.

A constant stream of minor penalties from both teams marred the first period. The final five minutes saw a run of 4-on-4, followed by two minutes of 5-on-3 power play time for Abbotsford before a final minute of 5-on-5 play.

Raty took a whirl in the final minute, immediately posting up at the net front, tipping a centering pass over the cross-bar.

It was a weird period. Fortunately, Colliton found ways to keep his players fresh. The time on the PK and second power play unit kept Raty fresh after an opening ten minutes that had him mostly stapled to the bench.

Raty started the second period, losing his man behind the goal line, nearly leading to San Jose’s second goal of the game.

Moments later, the Raty line had pushed the puck back into the offensive zone, where quick passing from Rau to Woo led to Tristen Nielsen’s 9th goal of the season.

Raty did not pick up a point on the play, but the screen he provided while positioned in the slot blinded Mann to the rebound generated by Woo’s point shot.

Additionally, Nielsen’s equalizer was the first goal scored with Raty on the ice at 5v5!

Following a d-zone faceoff, Raty was baited on his next shift by a Barracuda forward faking a play around the boards. Raty recovered enough to tie up his man with a not-so-subtle interference, allowing Noah Juulsen to break the puck out of the zone.

Minutes later, the Barracuda capitalized on a neutral zone turnover from Klimovich to send Kyle Criscuolo into the Canucks’ zone for a shot on goal and rebound past a sprawling Arturs Silovs.

Raty was back out for Abbotsford with them trailing by one. However, it was another one of those unremarkable shifts where nothing positive or negative happened. “It was certainly a shift” is the best way to describe Raty’s immediate post-Kriscuolo-goal shift.

The feisty Canucks kept battling throughout the middle frame. Eventually, the young guns line connected at 5v5 to tie the game at 2. Linus Karlsson started the game-tying sequence with a feed to Alex Kannok Leipert on the blue line after catching a dump-in along the half-wall. Arshdeep Bains cut back to the slot to get a tip on AKL’s shot which rebounded off Mann’s left pad to Chase Wouters, who wrapped around the net to center for Karlsson.

The sequence was the perfect representation of how the Bains-Wouters duo has operated all season: Incredibly high work rate, great speed, and quality set-plays around the net. The duo’s impressive skating and work rate earned them a significant uptick in 5v5 ice time through the second period.

Following the game-tying goal, it was another unremarkable shift for Raty. However, Raty’s second shift after Karlsson’s equalizer saw him display excellent puck control while under tremendous pressure on a d-zone breakout. After boxing out his check to create a zone entry, Raty dished a one-handed pass to Kyle Rau for a shot on goal.

After a run of offensive zone domination for Abbotsford, Raty was back on the ice, forcing a neutral zone turnover, leading a controlled zone entry, and dishing off to Rau for another shot on goal.

Raty finished his shift setting up Vinny Arseneau for a shot on goal.

Seconds after hopping off the ice for a long change, Arseneau scored to give Abbotsford their first lead of the game. Raty didn’t pick up a point or a positive in the “on-ice goal-differential” ledger, but his line’s run of possession exhausted the Barracuda’s defence, prompting the go-ahead goal.

Raty showed some style on his next shift, playing a pass off his skate and into the zone before rifling a shot off a stick and over the glass.

After losing the ensuing faceoff in the Barracuda’s zone, Raty was back behind the goal line playing defence. Unfortunately, Raty’s lack of speed stood out like a sore thumb when San Jose’s Jeff Viel easily sprinted to evade Raty’s check for a wraparound chance on Silovs.

After being outshot 9-6 through the first period, the Farm rallied to outshoot the Barracuda 19-9, all at 5v5.

The opening five minutes of the final frame were relatively quiet, with Raty showing a “chippy” side while posted in front of the Barracuda’s net.

Following a second penalty taken by Arseneau in which Raty did not spend any time on the PK, he was out for a d-zone faceoff. After losing the draw, Tristen Nielsen stole the puck and sprung Raty ahead for his first shot on goal of the game.

Raty’s next shift was another unremarkable, “nothing negative, nothing positive” shift.

Past the midway point of the period, both squads ran into more penalty trouble. Offsetting minor penalties saw each team split 40 seconds of power play time with 40 seconds of 4-on-4. Raty took a spin at 4-on-4 where, again, not much happened with him on the ice.

At 5v5, defending a one-goal lead with less than five minutes left, it was more of the same “safe and unremarkable” from the Rau-Raty-Nielsen trio. The Barracuda would pull Strauss Mann for the extra attacker over the final two minutes of play, resulting in little ice time for Raty.

Overall, Raty looked infinitely more confident with the puck. Raty was leaned on more by his linemates as a shooting threat, and he displayed fantastic poise as a zone entry machine during his sophomore follow-up. However, the speed of his first step and overall agility will be a significant area of focus for Abbotsford’s development coaches over the coming months.

After losing seven of their last eight games, the Abbotsford Canucks head into the AHL All-Star break, having rebounded with three straight wins, all while losing three forwards from their top six and going a measly 2/9 on the power play.

The Farm earns a well-deserved six-day break before returning home for a Friday/Saturday doubleheader against the Tucson Roadrunners.