As play‑by‑play voice Brandan Astle said at the top of the broadcast: “Trophies don’t choose their homes; champions do.”

And for the Abbotsford Canucks, there’s no truer statement.

The last time this group took the ice, they were skating around the Bojangles Coliseum with the Calder Cup in their hands — the franchise’s first championship in just its fourth year of existence.

Fast forward 109 days, and the team was back in action, kicking off their fifth season with a visit to Henderson to face the Silver Knights, a team they swept in four games last year and have handled well in past matchups.

Although they were on the verge of defending their title, the lineup had a slightly different look. With a mix of graduations, off-season exits, and key injuries, the defending champions opened the season with a roster featuring more new faces than familiar ones.

Only nine skaters from June’s Cup-clinching win remained in uniform, setting the stage for a night that was less about defending a title and more about laying the groundwork for what comes next.

But tonight, it was all about a netminder entering his third season who stole the show and made a statement to cement himself as this team’s new 1A firmly.

Let’s check in on the action.

Kravtsov – Sasson – Aman
MacEachern – Mueller – Klimovich
Alriksson – Labate – Kambeitz
Berard – Walker – Stillman

Schuldt – Willander
Knyzhov – Kudryavtsev
Arntsen – Mynio

Tolopilo

Healthy scratches: Josh Bloom, Jackson Kunz, Derek Daschke, Aku Koskenvuo
Injuries: Chase Wouters, Anri Ravinskis, Jett Woo, Guillaume Brisebois

As you’d expect from the first game of the season, after neither team saw any preseason action, things were a bit sloppy.

Nikita Tolopilo, who had a strong pre-season stint up in Vancouver, was the first player to showcase himself.

Off an Abbotsford giveaway, he held tall to stop Mitch McLain point-blank, only to soak in the Jakub Brabenec spin-o-Rama rebound directly after the fact.

The Belarusian was the star of the period (and eventually the game), as he made several key saves to hold the Knights at bay.

None better than sliding over to rob Lukas Cormier of the two-on-one backdoor play.

It took the Canucks a bit over six minutes to find their first shot of the season.

Channelling his inner Quinn Hughes at the blueline, Kirill Kudryavtsev walked the Knights forward before delivering a floating shot to the gut of Carl Lindblom.

That shot appeared to wake the team up, as they grabbed a few additional looks and the game’s first powerplay courtesy of a Braeden Bowman tripping call.

The top line took up more than three-quarters of the man advantage, with Danila Klimovich providing his typical shooting gallery.

Although they failed to register the opening goal, they were moving the puck around with poise, finding each other’s chemistry, and working as a unit.

Just as the penalty expired, Ty Mueller showcased why he continues to push as a prominent two-way member of this organization’s system.

After Tom Willander blew a tire, gifting the Knights with a potential odd-man rush, Mueller burst on the scene to provide perfect defence to break up the play and kickstart it the other way.

Later in the frame, he put his body on the line to block a shot point-blank to send the puck out of harm’s way.

Is there anything he can’t do?

Now, would it really be a Farmies without Max Sasson weaving in and out of traffic to gain entry on his own?

And Sasson wasn’t done causing havoc. He kicked off what would become a strong stint of sustained pressure by jamming a rebound free. The Canucks would press for the following few minutes with no success.

Nikita Tolopilo was sharp early, and thanks to a mid-period powerplay, the Canucks woke up to make the period enjoyable. At least for a scoreless opening frame.

The first minute was all Henderson, as they pinned the Canucks deep in their end.

But the moment the visiting team gained the offensive zone, Jaycob Megna was called for roughing Max Sasson while he was working the forecheck.

Working that man-advantage, the team’s best chance came off the stick of Mueller, who kept his stick on the ice to redirect the Ben Berard shot pass.

The puck found its way past Lindblom, but not the iron.

The penalty expired, but that didn’t stop the Canucks from pressing.

After some handy work below the goal line, Dino Kambeitz forced the puck out to MacEachern, who centred the puck for the former Canuck draft pick Joseph LaBate.

Shortly after, Tom Willander nearly picked up his first point as a Canuck. Gaining possession at his own blueline, he earned the zone and provided a patient cutback before finding Labate. Unfortunately, he sent it wide.

But after half a period of pressing, the Canucks finally found the back of the net.

With a poised play off the boards, Sawyer Mynio bumped the puck up to Chase Stillman.

He found a steaming Ben Berard and Cooper Walker, who made a nice dipsy-doodle around a defender before finding Ben Berard for the opening goal of the season.

But what goes up must come down. And despite riding the high of the game’s opening goal, Danila Klimovich took an unnecessary slashing call to send Henderson to their first powerplay.

To make matters worse, the Canucks would take a second to send the home team on a 5-on-3.

But Tolipolo continued to bail his team out to keep the opposing team off the scoresheet.

The Canucks made light work of the penalties, mainly due to more incredible saves from their netminder.

Although the Canucks got off to a strong start, it was a tale of two periods, with the Knights taking control for most of the second half.

But thanks to a goal by Duncan, BC’s Ben Berard, the Canucks held out for the single-digit lead heading into the final period.

Unlike the initial two frames, the opening minutes of the third were somewhat uneventful.

And the Canucks were A-okay with that.

But as had been a theme all night long, when the Knights did see a high-grade chance, Tolopilo was all over it.

The Canucks nearly doubled their lead just before the midway point of the period.

We will start the play in the defensive zone, where Willander showcased the type of poised breakout we love to see in his professional debut.

With the team pinning the Knights in, Vitali Kravtsov displayed some slick vision, finding Nils Aman with an incredible cross-ice backdoor feed.

Lindblom did his best Tolopilo impression and stretched out for the incredible leg save.

Okay, one more view.

Approaching the eight-minute mark, Tom Willander drew a penalty, giving the Canucks an incredible opportunity to double their lead heading into gut-check time.

But the Canucks could not capitalize and would head into the final minutes nursing that single-goal cushion.

In those final minutes, the knights pressed hard, working the perimeter and doing their best to open up lanes.

The Canucks were dedicated to getting in front of those lanes.

And by now, you know the drill: Another Tolopilo save.

But this is Canucks hockey, so you know it couldn’t simply end like this…

With the netminder pulled, Tom Willander delivered an unfortunate giveaway on his outlet, giving the Knights the perfect lane for an open man.

Although the netminder stood tall on the initial shot, he could not handle the second jam attempt.

With a little over two minutes to go, we were all tied at one goal apiece.

The Knights continued to press, as the Canucks held on for dear life. But they managed to fend them off until the buzzer, grabbing the point and heading to overtime.

Despite losing momentum in the final minutes of regulation, it didn’t take much time for the Canucks to assert dominance.

Max Sasson corralled the puck at the blueline before handing off to Danila Klimovich, before b-lining toward the net. Klimovich cut into the slot, and given his shoot-first mentality, the entire Knights team respected the shot.

Freezing everyone, he sent the backdoor feed to Sasson, who redirected the puck through the legs of Lindblom for the game-winning goal in overtime.

As the shots suggest, the Silver Knights played a strong game and spent several minutes at a time pressing down the young Canucks defence. Credit to the goaltender, Nikita Tolopilo, who was incrdible with a 36-save performance.

At times, the team’s youth showed. Four of the six defenders were under the age of 22, and some of the plays showed. That said, there was a lot to like, with tons of development left for the season and perhaps some more cavalry returns from their Vancouver assignments.

Third star – Vitali Kravtsov co-led the team with four shots and made some terrific plays in search of insurance. As a top KHL producer over the last two seasons, he’s poised to be a solid offensive add, assuming he sticks around.

Second star – The overtime hero showed off his incredible wheels and co-led with four shots on net. Right on brand, he was a one-man entry machine and put them over the edge as the overtime hero.

First star – If you read the entire recap, you aren’t shocked to hear that Nikita Tolopilo takes the honours as tonight’s first star. With 36 saves on the net, he was increble from the first minute, up o the last. With Arturs Silovs out of the picture, the crease is officially his as the 1A option, so it’s an ideal start to the 2025-26 campaign.

These teams will hit the backend of a weekend doubleheader, with game two set for 6:00 pm PT on Saturday at Lee’s Family Forum.