Well, you can’t win ’em all!

In Abbotsford’s case, you certainly don’t win ’em all against the Calgary Wranglers.

Following the club’s gutsy 4-3 overtime win after the holiday break, the team turned in a polar-opposite performance on Friday night, getting absolutely embarrassed by their Pacific Division rival in a 5-nothing shutout.

If you want to see where and how the rematch went wrong, by all means, read on.

No pressure, though. It’s a weekend before the New Year. Why spoil a new beginning with bad vibes?

Just do me a favour and click all the ads before you go! That would mean a lot!

Let’s get into it.

The Calgary Wranglers poured it on Arturs Silovs right from the opening bell.

Like the first half of Thursday night’s second period, the Wranglers outshot the Canucks 10-1 through the first seven minutes of play.

Alex Gallant, who was suspended earlier this season for cross-checking Jett Woo in the face, looked to get some vengeance over the lost pay, drawing a coincidental roughing minor following a net-front scrum before goading him into a fight after leaving the penalty box.

Given the club’s lack of defensive options, Woo took the high road to give his club a fighting chance during the early shellacking.

The Wranglers then opened the scoring thanks to veteran forward Mitch McLain. After picking Quinn Schmiemann’s pocket, McLain doubled back for a drive to the crease, backhanding the puck over Silovs’ outstretched right pad.

Nick Cicek probably could have ditched Emilio Pettersen at the net front to get the body in front of McLain when it was clear that Schmiemann was two steps behind his check on the retreat.

Alas, another game against the Wranglers, another opening goal given up by Abbotsford.

Past the midway point of the period, Calgary’s Ben Jones kicked his right foot under Nick Cicek, hauling the blue liner hard to the ice along the left wall. Cicek eventually got up to finish his shift, but was clearly nonplussed about the lack of call from the referees.

Through 15 minutes, the Canucks were outshot 17-4, with Calgary adding an insurance marker from Matt Coronato.

After winning a puck battle along the d-zone half wall, Christian Wolanin spun to execute a breakout pass to Vasily Podkolzin. Unfortunately, Podkolzin did not handle the pass well, deflecting it to Ilya Solovyov for a point shot. Solovyov’s shot whizzed past Max Sasson and Podkolzin’s sticks and onto the tape of Coronato’s blade for the redirect under Silovs’ pads.

Off the centre-ice faceoff, Arshdeep Bains crashed into the net while racing alongside Linus Karlsson for a 3-on-2 rush chance.

After a commercial break, Emilio Pettersen drew a hooking penalty against Karlsson to give Calgary the game’s first power play.

Fortunately, the Wranglers’ power play continued to struggle. With the Canucks’ fourth-ranked penalty kill preventing any shots on net.

The successful kill inspired a semblance of offence from the Canucks, with the Bains-Karlsson-Sasson line generating a run of chances before Sheldon Dries nearly halved the Wranglers’ lead with a point-blank try off of a giveaway.

Then, as the Canucks were finally getting themselves back into the game, Quinn Schmiemann took a two-minute penalty for cross-checking William Stromgren as the latter was attempting to make a line change over the boards. The shove into the boards saw Stromgren smash both knees hard into the boards, requiring assistance from the Wranglers’ medical staff to make it down the tunnel.

The Canucks managed to close the shot gap but finished the period down 17-9 in shots, 2-zip in goals.

Not an ideal start!

The Canucks’ PK continued their stifling ways, holding Calgary to a single shot on net.

However, the PK’s success was moot when another uncontrolled breakout pass from the defence resulted in another Calgary goal. This time, Matt Irwin attempted to spring the puck up the boards to Aidan McDonough, who failed to settle, opening the door for Coronato to steal and wheel toward the slot for a shot attempt on Silovs. Coronato’s attempt hit the body of Adam Klapka, dropping the puck to his feet for the easy reacharound goal.

Later, Vasily Podkolzin got turnstiled badly by Solovyov while attempting to block the Russian defenceman’s shooting/passing lanes from the point. Solovyov cut around the spun-around forward, racing down the left wall to set up Cole Schwindt for a tap-in attempt.

Near the midway point of the period, the Canucks got caught with all five skaters below the hash marks, resulting in a hilarious-looking rugby scrum outside Silovs’ crease following a wraparound attempt from Will Riedell.

Jett Woo drew a holding penalty against Ilya Nikolaev midway through the period to give Abbotsford their first power play opportunity. They went 0-3 on Thursday night but generated several high-danger chances from Tristen Nielsen and Podkolzin.

The first power play unit generated a few good looks before Wolanin took a cross-checking penalty, drilling Ben Jones in the numbers with 47 seconds left in the man advantage.

The Canucks chewed down the clock for the 4-on-4 and again denied the Wranglers anything on their brief power play opportunity.

Upon the reset at 5-on-5, Cole McWard sprang Podkolzin deep into the Wranglers’ zone with a high-flip breakaway pass defended perfectly by a backchecking Mark Pysyk.

Coronato, whose name has popped up all over these Wrangler/Canuck game recaps, nearly made it 4-zip after capitalizing on a giveaway by Schmiemann at the d-zone blueline. Coronato raced in on a 2-on-1 with Pettersen, then dragged around a sliding Wolanin for the shot on Silovs.

Through 40 minutes, Arturs Silovs had made 32 saves on 35 shots. The players in front of him could not string together a breakout from the d-zone to save their lives. Unfortunately for Silovs, there was still 20 minutes to go.

The Canucks passing issues continued to plague them throughout the final frame, but—glass half-full—they were able to string some sustained offence for a change. Ultimately, the club looked dog-tired.

Even after gaining the zone, the Canucks were simply incapable of winning the necessary battles or making the necessary passes, nor were they ever skating into positions that would help execute set plays or create the looks necessary to mount a three-goal comeback.

Near the midway point of the period, Calgary’s Lucas Ciona took a tripping minor to give Abbotsford a second power play opportunity.

Interestingly, Colliton pulled Silovs for the 6-on-4 advantage.

The 6-on-4 went about as bad as possible. Seconds after pulling Silovs, Vasily Podkolzin continued his sloppy night with a giveaway to Calgary’s Matt Coronato, who sprang Clark Bishop ahead for the empty netter. Though Podkolzin made a terrific backchecking effort to compensate for his errant giveaway, he hooked Bishop on the retreat, giving him the ultra-rare automatic goal for the infraction to deny an empty netter.

After spending the final frame closing the shot gap, despite failing to generate much in the way of high-danger opportunities, Matt Coronato continued his excellent evening when he picked up his fourth point of the evening off of a gorgeous wraparound tally against a lethargic Canucks group.

Even with Calgary playing down a forward, they still managed to dominate the Canucks. Calgary finished the game having outshot the Canucks 46 to 37. Before score effects came into play, the Wranglers had outshot Abbotsford 10-1 with the game tied at zero apiece.

Calgary moves to 4-0-1-0 against Abbotsford this season. These two teams will meet six more times this season.

Calgary Wranglers defeat the Abbotsford Canucks 5-0

Arturs Silovs.

That’s it.

The Farm gets a five-day break between the action, returning on January 3rd with an away game against the Bakersfield Condors.