On a World Series Saturday, the Abbotsford Canucks were on a desperate push to cut ties with a six-game losing skid.

With the Henderson Silver Knights in the building, the last and only team the Canucks had beaten, there wasn’t a more favourable match-up to turn the corner.

There was just one issue…

Since losing to the Canucks in the opening two games, the Silver Knights went on a run, were in the midst of a five-game winning streak, and were playing red-hot hockey.

And it showed.

Despite a favourable start for the home team, penalty troubles kicked off what would be a flawless victory for the visiting Knights.

They would go 4/5 on the power play to kick the Canucks while they were down and hand them their seventh consecutive loss.

If you are a Toronto Blue Jays fan still recovering from the Game 7 loss and cannot bear to go through another heartbreaking loss, you may want to stay away from this one altogether.

There appears to be a bug running through the dressing room, and as such, there were a few players who sat out for the game. Most notably, Jimmy Schuldt, who has been an even-strength minute muncher and has been playing tons of minutes alongside Sawyer Mynio. As a truly recently signed ECHL defender, Robby Drazner made his AHL debut.

With Nikita Tolopilo still out nursing an injury, Jiri Patera got the nod.

Kravtsov – Aman – Klimovich
Labate – Mueller – Berard
Kunz – Khaira – Ravinskis
Bloom – Wouters – Kambeitz

Knyzhov – Mynio
Arntsen – Drazner
Daschke – Lee

Patera

It didn’t take long for the Canucks to test Cameron Whitehead with back-to-back chances.

First, Josh Bloom got in the lane to block a Silver Knights point shot, sending himself on a clear break in search of his first AHL goal.

Moments later, Nils Aman was stopped point-blank after Danila Klimovich won a battle below the goal line and found him with a perfect heads-up backhand pass.

With the home team pressing early, Henderson took their first penalty of the night with Christoffer Sedoff getting the gate for high-sticking.

Although they failed to score or even generate a shot during the stretch, it was one of their stronger starts in recent outings.

It wasn’t a very positive outing, so this was something to hang their heads on early.

Meanwhile, Jiri Patera, who had been incredibly sound early in his 2025-26 season, was showing off his quick reflexes early on.

Midway through the period, Klimovich’s hard board work drew a penalty in what was his third strong shift in a row. Are three strong shifts typically something to highlight? Not really.

But considering the Bellursian forward had been struggling to stay in the lineup, a quick jolt of energy out the gate was encouraging.

Hockey is a quick game, though, and things can and do change extremely quickly.

And as the Canucks were enjoying an even-keeled period, it took a drastic turn for the worse after Joseph Labate was called for a double minor high stick.

And the Knights made it count — big time.

With just one second remaining in the initial half of the double minor, the Knights threw a puck on net before it was deflected in the high slot past Patera.

And the fact that there was still one second on the initial half mattered, as they doubled down on the back half, scoring just 40 seconds later for the quick 2-0 lead.

This time, the Knights displayed nice puck movement before a Henderson player working the halfwall saw the wide-open man at the net front.

Although the puck never made it to its intended backdoor target, it pinballed directly out to the slot, where Braeden Bowman was left all on his own.

He made no mistake.

The Canucks enjoyed a late power play of their own, but couldn’t muster up much to find themselves at an early 0/3 on the night.

And with 12 seconds to go in the period, Sawyer Mynio was caught with the aggressive slash to send the Knights on their third of the period.

But it’s 12 seconds. Surely, the power play couldn’t make something happen in that time frame, right?

Right?

Believe it or not, it didn’t take 12 seconds. It took six.

Right off the offensive zone face-off, Tanner Laczynski drove the puck wide and started toward the back of the net. Fooling most, he dropped a cheeky dish back to Jonas Røndbjerg, who cashed in on a puzzled Patera.

It took six seconds, and just like that, the Canucks were down by a trio.

The game felt like it had just begun, and the energy was completely sucked out of an already decimated World Series Saturday night crowd.

Josh Bloom nearly got his team on the board, pouncing on a centring attempt off a strong drive from Dino Kambeitz only to chip it high over the crossbar.

But the Knights continued to tack on goals.

Just past the 13-minute mark, a Henderson defender tossed an incredible backhand missile up the ice, only to be deflected perfectly to the middle of the ice by Jackson Hallum to initiate the odd-man rush.

Sliding the puck over was Matyas Sapovaliv, before Thomas Uronen made no mistake against the sliding Patera.

And things only got worse, as Robby Drazner took another penalty.

Working the power play, Kai Uchacz dropped to his knees to take the Luaks Cormier cross ice pass, sliding the puck low between the legs of Patera.

Suddenly, it was 5-0 on the scoreboard, as the Silver Knights went 4/4 on the power play.

It was at this moment that the Toronto Blue Jays were working through the 9th inning, bases loaded scenario for max pain.

But that wasn’t nearly as dramatic as the 5-0 deficit the Abbotsford Canucks were enduring.

The Canucks nearly broke the goose egg early, with Nils Aman firing the high shot off the netminder’s head.

It’s not much, but with how things had gone up to this point, they will certainly take it.

Then, minutes later, they finally did.

While working the man advantage, Sawyer Mynio collected the Nils Aman pass, looked off the pass to the half-wall man before firing a shot toward the net.

Planted in the slot was Ty Mueller, who got a stick on the shot to deflect his first goal of the season and finally get the Abbotsford Canucks on the scoreboard.

For the young Mynio, that represents his third point in his last three games (and season).

But that high was short-lived, as the Knights responded with a quick one of their own.

Working their way up the ice, several Knights beat out Abbotsford players, as they connected for another slick passing play that resulted in a Tuomas Uronen tap-in.

That goal essentially sums up the game.

Despite the poor game team-wise, Danila Klimovich was still doing his best to put on a show for those who stuck it out on a World Series Saturday.

Working his way through the team, he pulled off the slick toe drag before nearly beating Whitehead with the backhand.

But that was all to cheer for in this one, as the Canucks dropped their seventh consecutive game and fell to 2-7-0 and winless at home.

We aren’t sure if the Abbotsford Canucks had the Blue Jays game streaming on the bench because the effort put forward wasn’t great. Then again, they are still navigating their way through an injury-plagued and promoted roster, so they get a slight bit of relief from that.

They drop game one of the weekend series by a 6-1 score to extend their losing skid to seven games.

There will be no CanucksArmy three stars following this one.

The Canucks will wrap up their six-game homestand on Sunday, as these two will square off for an afternoon match at the Abbotsford Centre. Puck drop is set for 4:00 pm PT.