It’s been a while since we last visited the Farm to recap some game action! With the club playing their fourth-last home game of the season, we figured we were overdue for a game recap!

In true Vancouver Canucks fashion, Arturs Silovs put on the goaltending performance of his life for 59 minutes and 50 seconds, only to somehow come away with just a single point via the shootout. While this was great news to the local goalie guild for the GIF content, it was tragic news for Abbotsford fans, who haven’t seen this team win three straight at home since December.

Enjoy the GIFs as we check in on the Sunday Silovs-show.

On Saturday, the club saw the returns of John Stevens and Brady Keeper. Stevens missed 26 games due to injury, while Keeper missed 31 of the previous 32 with injury.

Tristen Nielsen sat out of Sunday’s action after missing the third period in Abbotsford’s 4-2 victory against the Eagles.

The first period started pretty rough for Abbotsford.

Through the opening five minutes, the Eagles had outshot the Canucks 5-0. Matt Alfaro drew a tripping penalty to give the Canucks a power play opportunity, but it did little to stem the bleeding.

PP1: Justin Dowling, Arshdeep Bains, Linus Karlsson, Nils Höglander, and Jack Rathbone

PP1: Aatu Räty, Kyle Rau, Vincent Arseneau, Quinn Schmiemann, and Jett Woo

On the man advantage, Arshdeep Bains continued his strong run of play, generating the power play’s best chance with a shot off the post and out of play.

Seconds after the power play expired, the Canucks took a too-man-men penalty to give Colorado a power play opportunity.

PK1: Chase Wouters, John Stevens, Jack Rathbone, and Zach Giuttari

PK2: Arshdeep Bains, Matt Alfaro, Jett Woo, and Brady Keeper

The first PK unit did well to limit the Eagles’ offence, but it was Arturs Silovs’ clutch stretching pad save on Alex Galchenyuk that kept this game tied nil-nil.

Late in the Eagles’ power play, Jett Woo narrowly avoided a roughing minor after giving Ben Meyers a hard shove post-whistle.

Thanks to Silovs’ strong work between the pipes, the Farm survived the Eagles’ early onslaught and killed off the too-man-men penalty.

The successful PK seemingly woke up the home team and opened the floodgates for Abbotsford’s offence. After being outshot by the Eagles 9-2 through the first nine minutes, the Canucks rallied back to outshoot their visitor 9-2 over five.

On their second power play of the period, Jett Woo recorded the team’s best look with a bomb off the same post Bains had hit earlier.

Brady Keeper sprung Justin Dowling with a bank pass off the wall for a dangerous chance. But the first period was all about the goalies.

Much to David Quadrelli’s pleasure, Arturs Silovs was the difference maker for Abbotsford through the opening 20 minutes. Off a late Eagles’ power play opportunity, Silovs made his best save of the period, going post-to-post to body a quick wrist shot from Alex Beaucage.

At the risk of typing essentially the same thing over and over again, Silovs started the second the way he started the first: bailing out his teammates. He was the star of Sunday’s action; what can I say!?

Not one minute into the first, the Canucks turned the puck over inside the d-zone, resulting in a free shooting lane for the Eagles’ Luke Martin, who ripped a slap shot center into Silovs’ chest.

Arshdeep Bains joined in on the goal-stopping fun, sweeping a loose puck from out of Silovs’ crease after Silovs’ initial stop on Charles Hudon.

Despite the initial wave of blunders, the second period was a much better defensive performance from the home team. The Canucks took two penalties and drew two of their own, finishing the middle frame having outshot their opponent 11-6.

Here’s a GIF of Justus Annunen contributing his share of meaningful saves in the goaltending duel.

You’re welcome, goalie guild.

Here’s a GIF of Silovs making a tremendous panic save following an unfortunate bounce off the linesman’s skate. Silovs started the sequence behind his net, anticipating a dump-in retrieval. However, the Eagle’s dump-in off the zone entry rebounded off the ref’s skate and out to Wyatt Aamodt, whose quick wrist shot forced Silovs into sprawling heroics.

The Farm kickstarted the final frame with more penalty trouble. Fortunately, the Canucks penalty killers (and Silovs) came up huge once more. Following another fortuitous bounce, Silovs’ made his best save of the game with a crouching stop on Ben Meyers. Alex Kannok Leipert did a terrific job spotting the rebound and clearing the zone for Abbotsford.

Between the bounces and the Eagles’ aggression, the Canucks play to start the period was rather chaotic.

After opening the third period having been outshot 7-1, the Farm rallied for their Latvian netminder by outshooting the Eagles 11-0, drawing a power play opportunity, and finally breaking the goaltending stalemate with a power play tally from Linus Karlsson!

Worth noting: the player that drew the penalty to give the Canucks the power play opportunity? Arturs freaking Silovs, baby.

What can’t this kid do?!

Then Linus Karlsson scored with a tip from the net front to break Annunen’s 53-minute shutout streak.

Arshdeep Bains was credited with the secondary assist, but we’re 99% sure Höglander got the first touch on Dowling’s wrist shot that redirected it toward the net.

The Canucks then played solid shutdown hockey to hold the Eagles to just five shots on net over the final seven and a half minutes. Unfortunately, with Annunen pulled for the extra attacker, one of those shots came from Ryan Merkley through a boatload of traffic, floating over Silovs’ right shoulder to tie the game at 1 with just 10 seconds left.

Silovs was ten seconds away from his fourth shutout of the season.

Feelsbadman!

While the late tying goal sucked for Silovs, it did open the door for some fun “Nils Höglander” things in overtime!

Including his two shots in overtime, Höglander finished the game with the lead in shots among forwards with seven total, while Jack Rathbone led all skaters with eight. The Hög-show then took a detour toward the bizarre when he took a holding penalty while being high-sticked in the face.

The crowd was not happy with the penalty, and Höglander was irate.

From the alternate angle, it was clear that the Big Hög had a firm grip on Ryan Merkley’s stick. Neither team generated anything in the final 24 seconds of 3-on–3, so no harm, no foul.

No, this isn’t a typo, Jett Woo started the shootout for Abbotsford, and he scored.

Aatu Räty nearly put it away for Abbotsford with a trickler through Annunen’s pads.

Then Alex Galchenyuk went full-heel mode, undressing Silovs off his backhand to keep the Eagles alive.

In round eight, Linus Karlsson put the pressure on Colorado’s Alex Beaucage after scoring a heater under Annunen’s blocker side.

Beaucage responded with a snappy wrister over Silovs’ right pad.

Then, in round nine of the shootout, Kyle Rau fired a shot off Annunen’s stick, opening the door for Colorado to win.

From being 10 seconds away from a shutout, stopping 33 of 34 in regulation, and 6 of 9 in the shootout, Arturs Silovs’ incredible performance was undone by a late shot from Justin Scott through the five-hole.

Tough break.

The Abbotsford Canucks pick up a loser point but lose their sixth game in their last 10. A  frustrating result considering the unbelievable performance of Arturs Silovs. The Farm embarks on a five-day hiatus before their final weekend double-header at home for the season.

Honorable mention: Nils Höglander and Jett Woo