While you were busy enjoying some best-on-best Canada versus Sweden action, the real matchup of the night was taking place in the Fraser Valley.

That’s right, the Abbotsford Canucks hosted the San Diego Gulls for the backend of their mid-week back-to-back series. With one of the most potent lineups the Canucks had seen so far, combined with them taking on a basement-dwelling Gulls team, this one screamed a blowout.

Unfortunately, with a 3-2 (Canucks) win, we didn’t see that on Tuesday, and this game was even worse.

If you caught the thrilling overtime 4 Nations finish, this one was the polar opposite. On a brisk Wednesday night at the Abbotsford Centre, the Canucks put up a sleepy stinker to drop a 4-1 decision to a 30th-ranked San Diego team.

Granted, they did run into an incredibly hot goaltender and doubled the visiting team in shots. And yet, something just doesn’t sit right, given their incredibly stacked lineup.

Here’s how things developed.

Aman – Sasson – Karlsson
Bains – Räty – Lekkerimäki
Blais – Mueller – Di Giuseppe
Nielsen – Stevens – Wouters

Kudryavtsev – Mancini
Wolanin – Woo
Arntsen – McWard

Tolopilo

Thanks to the 4 Nations Face-Off mentioned above, the Canucks’ lineup remained heavily stacked – especially upfront. They rode the same lineup as the previous night.

On the backend, however, we did see one lineup change. Elias Pettersson, who briefly left Tuesday’s game after taking a slapshot up high, was unavailable for the match.

If you missed it, here’s another look at the incident:

As a result, Joe Arntsen, a free agent signing from last summer, slid in to make his AHL debut.

Nikita Tolopilo got the state between the pipes.

Linus Karlsson wasted no time showing off his tenacious tricks. He fought for positioning in front of the net, ate the Nils Aman shot, and nearly cashed in on the bouncing rebound.

After a Victor Mancini giveaway, Arshdeep Bains caught Nikita Nesterenko with his head down, dropped and delivered a bone-crushing hit.

If we’re being honest, the first instinct was to assume that this was a slight clip and likely a penalty.

But a closer look shows it was a clean and effective hit that just happened to catch the Gull forward off guard.

The low-attended crowd needed that spark, as the game saw just two shots in the initial 10 minutes. That included a power play for the Gulls in which they posted zero shots.

Giveaways and scrambled play at both ends fueled most of the opening period. Pray for the fans who skipped the Four Nations Face-Off to attend this game.

It wasn’t just the players struggling to get into this game.

After successfully killing a penalty, Jett Woo received a two-minute phantom tripping (?) call that raised everyone’s eyebrows in the building.

Please leave a comment if you can spot the infraction:

As things typically go in those cases, the Gulls wasted no time in making the Canucks pay.

Just seven seconds into their second man advantage of the period, Sacha Patsjuvo took the puck at the face-off dot and unleased a wicked farside shot past Tolopilo to open the scoring for the second consecutive night.

Pastujov, who began the year in the ECHL, has 31 points in 30 games since being recalled in late November and has points in 19 of his last 21 games. So, it’s been quite the run for him, and he wasn’t done there.

But as they did on Tuesday, the Canucks responded with a speedy goal of their own.

Off the heads-up stretch pass from Christian Wolanin, Ty Mueller threaded a cheeky backhand pass over to Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who was left open in the slot.

If there’s a skater on the Canucks you don’t want all alone, it’s the Swedish Sniper, and he made them pay.

As quick as he took the pass, the puck was off his stick to beat Oscar Dansk cleanly on the farside for his 16th goal of his rookie campaign.

The Gulls enjoyed a whopping 1:29 lead, but this one was all knotted up after 20 minutes.

Since we know you’re dying to see Victor Mancini, here’s him showing off his skating ability. Arshdeep Bains’ skate ruins the odd man rush, but here’s a little breakout to enjoy his skating ability.

Linus Karlsson almost cashed in on an in-tight rebound in a nearly identical play to the first few minutes of the first. He was sporting a six-game goal streak heading into tonight’s match, so he was working like a bull all night to try and extend that streak.

Remember Pastujov? The Gulls broke out on an odd-man rush thanks to a failed Jett Woo punch.

Receiving the puck as the wide man in, Pastujov went through the wickets to beat a sliding Tolopilo for his second goal of the match.

For the first time in four leads throughout the series, the Gulls held that lead cushion for over three minutes.

But Jett Woo was doing his part in trying to find that equalizer. Starting with the puck in his end, he started up the ice and went for one of his best rushes of the season. Or, ever? What a move.

Jonathan Lekkerimäki saw that and said, “Hey, I can do that, too.”

Linus Karlsson continued his push to extend his goal streak, taking another shot from the slot. Once again, he was stymied by the Gulls’ netminder.

Oscar Dansk deserves all of the credit for the Gulls’ 2-1 lead. He stopped all 18 shots in the frame, including this robbery on Aatu Räty off the Kirill Kudryavtsev rebound.

Despite the Canucks dominating the second frame, Dansk kept the game at bay to earn a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes of play.

Lekkerimäki picked up where he left off from the middle frame, nearly capitalizing early to even the score off the opening face-off.

The sharpshooter got the inside track off the Bains give and go, nearly capitalizing on the backhanded.

So, really, Oscar Dansk picked up where he left off.

Propelled by a power play, it was Gulls who spent the next 10 minutes pressuring inside the Canucks’ zone.

Despite all that pressure, they managed just one shot on Tolopilo.

By the third period’s first TV timeout, the Abbotsford Canucks led by a 26-10 shot advantage but just couldn’t solve their red-hot tender.

With little energy on the ice and even less in the building, the game slowed its pace for the next several minutes, experiencing a bit of a Wednesday night lull.

That was until the six-minute mark when the visiting team doubled its lead to put the game out of reach.

After the puck popped out in the Gulls’ end, Judd Caulfield sent former Chilliwack Chief Nikita Nesterenko, who turned on the jets.

Getting the edge on Mancini, he fired the shot-pass toward Tolopilo. The Canucks goaltender left a juicy rebound bounced right out to a streaking Caulfield, who pounced on the puck to put this game out of reach.

With the netminder pulled, the Canucks did generate some looks, but nothing that could solve Dansk.

Despite those chances, the Gulls struck on the empty net and, despite being one of the league’s bottom dwellers, tripled up on the Abbotsford Canucks to split the series.

The Canucks doubled the Gulls in shots but couldn’t get anything to go on the scoresheet.

The Canucks stay home for an odd-ball doubleheader against the Colorado Eagles, with games on Saturday and Monday. The puck drops at 7:00 pm PT.