The Abbotsford Canucks did not have long to mourn their first loss in five games after succumbing to the Tucson Roadrunners on Friday night, as the two were back at it for a rare Saturday afternoon matinée match.

The visiting team got the first laugh on Friday as they extended their own personal win streak to five while ending the Canucks’ at four. And unfortunately, they got the last laugh, too.

Despite the Canucks sitting with another lead in the third period, the Roadrunners scored three unanswered goals to match Fridays’ 4-2 score and take the weekend sweep over the Canucks.

Here’s how it all went down.

Head Coach Manny Malhotra made some big changes for this one after putting them through the blender for much of Friday’s game.

Bains – Räty – Lekkerimäki
Stevens – Aman – Klimovich
Blais – Mueller – Smith
Glover – Wouters – Walker

Pettersson – Friedman
Brisebois – Kudryavtsev
Wolanin – McWard

Tolopilo

With another multipoint game under his belt, Arshdeep Bains was elevated back to the top line to slide in alongside Aatu Räty and Jonathan Lekkerimäki. Meanwhile, Ty Mueller dropped to the third-line centre spot, with Sammy Blais and former Roadrunner Nate Smith.

The big move came on the backend, where Kirill Kudryavtsev replaced Jett Woo on the right side. Woo had left Friday’s game early and did not return with an undisclosed injury.

Getting the start between the pipes was Nikita Tolopilo, who came in sporting a two-game shutout streak and four wins over his last five games.

The opening minutes went about as bad as it gets.

One minute into the match, Danila Klimocch took a two-minute slashing minor to send the Roadrunners on a quick powerplay. A powerplay that was stymied in three attempts on Friday.

And it was actually the Canucks that grabbed the best early attempt in that man advantage. Young defenceman Elias Pettersson rifled the puck around the boards, which took an uncontrolled bounce off a Roadrunner defender.

Chipping the puck away was Chase Wouters, who set off on a two-on-one with John Stevens. Dylan Wells shut down a solid far-side shot from Stevens, with Wouters on the doorstep hoping to cash in on the rebound.

But this is hockey; of course, the play will turn up the other way.

Off the Wells’ save, former Edmonton Oiler Kailer Yamamoto was sprung on a break before feeding Josh Doan – son of Arizona legend Shane – who fired a labelled one-timer to the far side top corner.

You know what that means, folks. After going back-to-back games with zero goals allowed, Nikita Tolopilo had his impressive shutout streak snapped just minutes into the game.

All good things must come to an end, they say.

The Bellurssian did not let that phase his game, however. He settled down quickly and made several stops following the allowed goal.

Next up was Abbotsford’s turn to head to the man advantage as Cameron Hebig took a holding call just before the period’s midway point.

Lekkerimäki got the chances going, setting up with the exact play they have run for two games straight now. You know, the “Wolanin to Lekkerimäki snapshot play”.

No, he didn’t score like he did in Friday night’s match, but the shot did stir up some havoc at the Roadrunners’ net. That play would hold as the stretch’s best opportunity, as the Canucks were skunked for the remainder of the man advantage.

Just seconds after the kill, Doan was at it again, gloving down an errant stretch pass and busting up the ice to take a relatively routine snapshot off the rush. However, it wasn’t so routine this time, as Tolopilo struggled to squeeze his pads and had the puck trickle through to nearly double their lead—Ty Glover to the rescue.

The period ended with some rough stuff, with tensions flaring from three games of relatively rough matches. This time, it was caused by Canucks coming to the aid of their star shooter, Lekkerimäki, who was taken down to the ice and dragged around by Andrew Agozzino.

The skirmish led to a several-minute stall as the players battled, and the referees took names and numbers. Despite several penalties going both ways, the play resulted in a power play for the home teams.

Unfortunately, with a bloody jersey, Lekkerimäki was forced to the dressing room to retrieve a new sweater and did not deploy for the man-up.

As a result, the two minutes were unsatisfactory and did not lead to many opportunities being generated.

In fact, Josh Doan got the best chance of the late period and wrapped it the same way he started it, grabbing another chance alone.

What started with Guillaume Brisebois swinging and missing the puck at his own blue line ended with Mark Friedman taking a weak swipe rather than the body, which directly led to Doan all on his lonesome before he was denied the five-hole from Tolopilo.

The Canucks were gifted with three power plays in the period but could not find any solutions to even the score.

Like the first period, the Roadrunners were handed a very early power play, with Nate Smith getting the gate for hooking just two minutes into the middle frame.

The powerplay wasn’t effective but scrambled. If we could describe the chances with a single clip, it may be this:

Just sketchy.

The game slowed its pace after that successful penalty kill, with little action between the two sides.

That was until the Roadrunners decided to take another shot at a Canuck skater, with Friday night’s first star, Hunter Drew, delivering a nasty cross-check to Elias Pettersson to send the home team to their fourth powerplay.

This time, they made it count.

Taking the Cole McWard cross-feed, Danila Klimovich set up in his office and delivered a labelled snapshot to the short side top corner. They don’t come much labelled than that, folks.

You know tension is building when the goalscorer delivers one of these (shhhh):

With the goal, Klimovich has goals in back-to-back games since drawing back into the lineup and ties Lekkerimäki for the team lead with 11 on the year.

Just like that, this game was all tied up to set up for another fantastic third period. But not until both teams traded rush chances of their own.

With the game all tied up, the Abbotsford Canucks were gifted an early Christmas present courtesy of the Abbotsford Centre stanchion.

Kirill Kudryavtsev dumped the puck deep into the Roadrunners’ zone. With Tuscon’s netminder drifting out to play the puck, it took a wild bounce off the stanchion toward the middle of the ice. Standing there uncontested was John Stevens, who deposited the puck for the easiest goal he’d see all season long.

And just like that, the Abbotsford Canucks had their first lead of the game, thanks to one of the best member bounces you’ll see.

Unfortunately, the thrill of a lead was short-lived. Just minutes later, Tucson evened the score again, thanks to a handful of turnovers that led to Hunter Drew’s’ third goal of the weekend.

To fully grasp how poor this entire play truly was, we’ll play it in two segments, and folks at home can count the giveaways.

Segment one:

Segment two:

The Canucks got back on their feet quickly, though, thanks to a good drive from Lekkerimäki. The Swede had been taking cheap shots all game up to this point, and once again, he was handed one more. That led to another powerplay and yet another engaged skirmish.

On that powerplay, Aatu Räty nearly cashed in on the open net after Dylan Wells fumbled his clearing attempt. Making the desperate attempt, the netminder slid back to his crease to throw the pad down to deny the go-ahead goal.

The lack of production proved costly, as the visiting team capitalized on yet another turnover.

Aatu Räty was stripped of the puck in the neutral zone, sending three strong toward the Canuck net. Kailer Yamamoto found the trailer, Austin Poganski, who made no mistake in regaining their lead just minutes after losing it.

With Tolopilo pulled, Abbotsford set up six strong in the offensive zone, cycling around to look for the late equalizer. Once again, Räty sent the puck directly to a Roadrunner, who made no mistake in firing the puck into the open cage.

That was all they needed in this one, as the Tuscon Roadrunners swept the season series to take each game by a score of 4-2.

The Canucks take a small break for the holidays and won’t play again until Monday, December 30th in Calgary. The puck drops at 5:00 pm PT, and we’ll have all of your Farmies coverage here at CanucksArmy.