The Abbotsford Canucks came into San Jose sporting a four game win streak, and were looking to cash in on some Black Friday savings.

Unfortunately, the Barracuda was in search of the same door-crashing deals and made out with the better of the two.

Thanks to a shaky start, the Canucks got themselves into a deficit early. Showing resilience, the away team refused to quit, and rallied all the way back thanks to a couple of unlikely heroes.

With a late goal conceded, the push wasn’t enough, though. Despite clawing their way back, the Canucks dropped their first game of their current six game road trip to snap a four game win streak in the process.

Let’s check in on how it all unfolded.

Nielsen – Aman – Lekkerimäki
Bains – Mueller – Klimovich
Stevens – Wouters – Twarynski
Glover – Smith – Kambeitz

Pettersson – McWard
Kudryavtsev – Hirose
Wolanin – Felton

Young

Arhsdeep Bains, back in the lineup from Vancouver, lined up on the second line alongside Ty Mueller and Danila Klimovich. The remainder of the forward group remained relatively intact from what we’ve grown accustomed to over the last few games.

Meanwhile, Christian Wolanin drew back in the lineup, with Jett Woo sitting in the press box for the night. With Woo and Friedman out (called up to Vancouver), Christian Felton drew back into the rotation.

Ty Young got his fourth start of his AHL career.

Linus Karlsson, Phil Di Giuseppe, Sammy Blais and Jiri Patera all remain out with respective injuries.

The first 10 minutes saw a fast pace game and strong movement from the Abbotsford Canucks. If their early legs were any indication, it was shaping up to be an exciting game.

Recently reassigned, it did not take long for Arshdeep Bains to re-introduce himself to the American League level. Courtesy of a strong forecheck, the Surrey native stole the puck, and kept his feet moving behind the net. After being hauled down, the arm went up for the game’s first penalty.

As the play continued, Bains snuck in behind the defence and grabbed a point-blank chance from the side of the net. Yaroslav Askorov slid across to make the gigantic toe save for his first big save of the evening.

PP1 – Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Nils Åman, Arshdeep Bains, Danila Klimovich and Cole McWard
PP2 – Ty Mueller, Tristen Nielsen, Chase Wouters, John Stevens and Kirill Kudryavtsev

With the two minutes passing by, the Canucks failed to register any strong attempts. But just as the penalty expired, Kirill Kudryavstev delivered one of his patented stretch passes to a fresh Dino Kambeitz off the bench.

With the defence cutting off his angle, he sent a shot to the far side, which Askarov easily turned aside. He may not have scored on this one, but that wouldn’t be the last of him in this game.

Of course, after all that solid play, the Abbotsford Canucks would be the first to concede a goal.

After a weak drive-by defensive effort from Nate Smith that would drive any coach nuts, Lucas Vanroboys collected the puck and delivered a lasered toe-dragged snapshot to the short side to handcuff Ty Young.

That goal seemed to rattle the ‘young’ netminder, as he spent the remainder of the period struggling to find the puck in his pads and felt rather unsure of his net.

The Canucks did pick up one last shift of solid, sustained pressure, which led to a high-grade chance from Cole McWard.

After the puck bobbled around the slot, John Stevens collected and swung back around the circle. With his head up, he spotted an activated McWard before sending a soft and perfect pass to the defender, who fired a far-side shot on Askarov.

Despite some momentum on their side, they would allow one last goal before the horn sounded.

In the final minute, Young gave up another shot that found its way through his squeezed pads. With San Jose’s fourth line closing out the period, Lucas Vanroboys put Elias Pettersson in a standstill, allowing him to slide past the rookie defender and fire a rebound right on target.

Despite Young thinking he had it, the puck squeaked across the line to double there in the final minute.

Score: ABB: 0 SJ: 2
Shots: ABB: 6 SJ: 12

With the switch flipped, the second period began with the Canucks taking an early penalty after Ty Mueller was called for a neutral zone tripping minor.

Now, it was Abbotsford’s turn to kill and early period penalty.

The kill was successful, and Ty Young appeared to be settling into his net, making a string of saves to start the period. None better than this re-direct via an incredible pass from Collin Graf.

That confidence did not last long, though.

Just ticks later, former Canuck product Justin Bailey cashed from in tight, after Filip Bystedt worked over Cole McWard in the corner.

And just like that, the lead was extended to three and the game felt well out of reach for the away team.

But that’s why you have a captain, folks.

Following that goal, tempers began to flair and the game saw several post whistles scuffles. Finally, Chase Wouters had enough and made the attempt to light a fire from under his team by dropping the gloves.

It appeared to have worked.

With the captain now in the penalty box, the puck made its way to Elias Pettersson at the blueline. Wasting no time, the young rookie snapped a shot through traffic and beat Askarov cleanly up high.

Not only did that get his team on the board, but the goal was his first in the American League. The young defender had been one of the team’s best shutdown defenders all year, and now, you can put him in the goal column.

They weren’t done there, though.

Moments later, Dino Kambeitz took the rung around pass off the boards, and channeled his inner Jonathan Lekkerimäki to shimmy shake and rifle a snapshot past the Russian netminder.

With momentum clearly on their side, the Canucks did not let up. Tristen Nielsen was up next, driving the net and coming inches away from knotting the game up at three, but the puck trickled just wide.

On the play, the Barracuda took a late penalty, but the subsequent Canucks power play was unsuccessful.

Suddenly, though, the Canucks were very much in this game, as they headed down the tunnel in a 3-2 game.

Score: ABB: 2 SJ: 3
Shots: ABB: 21 SJ: 21

For a consecutive period, the Canucks took an unnecessary and early penalty to put them down a man out of the gate.

Only this time, they were the beneficiaries.

Starting the play up the ice, Shakir Mukhamadullin turned his own net before Dino Kambeitz came steamrolling through and put the young – but towering – defender to his knees. Pouncing on the puck, Kambeitz rifled the puck past Askarov for his second goal, and third point, of the match.

Coming in, Kambeitz had gone scoreless in 13 contests and now, single-handedly erased a three goal deficit for his team.

Meanwhile, Ty Young was doing his part in solidifying the comeback. Minutes after the tying goal, Collin Graf found himself all alone in front the netminder, firing a pointblank shot which he gobbled up.

Now, you’re probably wondering where Jonathan Lekkerimäki was and why he hadn’t been mentioned much. Truth be told, it was a relatively quiet night for him. He finished the evening with three credited shots, all of which came in the same play in the third. None of which were considered relatively high-danger.

And when your top producers aren’t producing, you can only rely on your fourth line grinder for so long.

With under five minutes remaining, the same Mukhamadullin that was crunched on the tying goal giveaway, fired the puck on net, where Scott Sabourin was sitting to jam in the rebound to regain their lead.

With the goaltender pulled, the Canucks made a valiant effort in the final ticks, but couldn’t find one last goal. And with the yawning cage, the Barracuda put a bow on this game en route to a 5-3 final.

Score: ABB: 3 SJ: 5
Shots: ABB: 36 SJ: 30

The Canucks put up a fight in this one, and made things incredibly interesting despite the weak start to the game. At the end of the day, it’s tough to win games when your top producers aren’t producing, and when Dino Kambeitz is your go-to offensive threat, your chances to come away with two points are greatly reduced.

With the loss, their win streak comes to an end at four games. Ty Young made 25 saves in the game, but was somewhat uncomfortable at times. Luckily, they won’t have to wait long to seek redemption, as thy look to bounce back on Saturday night,

The Canucks will wrap up their six game road trip with one last tilt against the San Jose Barracuda on Saturday evening. The puck drops at 6:00 pm Pacific Time at the Tech CU Arena.

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