Considering the Abbotsford Canucks play the same divisional teams multiple times in a single season, it’s always comical that they find themselves in Laval for an annual doubleheader.

And they are getting the trip out of the way early this year, travelling from Henderson, Nevada, to wrap up a four-game road trip.

Historically, the Canucks have always played well against their Eastern Conference rivals, coming in with a favourable 12-3-1-0 record.

Unfortunately, Bell Place hasn’t been a welcoming venue for the visiting Canucks in recent memory, dropping both games played there last season.

And in this one, those struggles continued mightily.

Despite a strong effort from their netminder, the Canucks were handled in nearly every facet of the game to drop the first game of their 2025-26 season.

The good news? They won’t have long to overthink their effort as they are right back at it on Saturday afternoon.

Let’s check in on what happened.

The Abby Canucks welcomed back their captain, Chase Wouters, who missed both games in Henderson while recovering from injury. Meanwhile, Anri Ravinskis made his AHL debut after signing with the Vancouver Canucks mid-summer from Europe. He spent two seasons playing about 15 minutes down the road in the QMJHL earlier in his career.

Ty Young, who did not see any action in week one, got the start to make his season debut.

Berard – Aman – Kravtsov
MacEachern – Mueller – Klimovich
Ravinskis – Labate – Stillman
Alriksson – Wouters – Kambeitz

Schuldt – Willander
Knyzhov – Mynio
Arntsen – Kudryavtsev

Young
Tolopilo

Scratched: Jett Woo (injured), Guilliame Brisebois (injured), Jayden Lee, Josh Bloom, Jackson Kunz, Cooper Walker, Derek Daschke, Aku Koskenvuo and Jiri Patera.

It wasn’t the ideal start for the visiting team, as MacKenzie MacEachern was called for tripping.

The play was a result of various Canucks playing lackadaisical defence in the neutral zone, allowing Nate Clurman to weave through the lane with ease.

The penalty kill was successful, with Ty Young standing tall on both shots faced in the stretch.

As an act of foreshadowing, be ready to hear that often in this recap, as Ty Young was one of the only positive stories from this game.

With momentum in hand, the first half of the period was all Laval, forcing Young to stay sharp. And he was.

The Canucks’ best looks came just before the midway point of the period, where they pressed hard and worked the cycle.

Tom Willander had one of his best shifts, keeping a few pucks in from the line while also adding the first shot of his night.

Those chances and offensive zone keeps were coupled with a few good sticks in the defensive zone and patient breakout outlets. So far, it had been one of the young defender’s best periods.

But despite a few decent shifts, the opening period belonged to Laval, who was enjoying several stints of sustained pressure.

They were working the cycle well and putting the Canucks defence through a turn cycle, resulting in a few missed coverages.

But as he was for most of the night, Ty Young was up to the challenge.

With just over three minutes to go in the period, the Canucks were sent back to the box as a result of a high stick to take out one of the team’s best penalty killers.

Eventually, with them working the man-advantage, you got the sense that Laval was going to capitalize. And that’s precisely what they did.

Building up the ice, the Rocket gained entry before finding the trailer Jared Davidson, who ripped the onetimer to beat a sliding Young clean to open the scoring.

Goal aside, Young was the story of the period, earning several strong saves to keep his team within striking distance.

With just seven seconds remaining on the clock, the Canucks were sent to their first power play of the game.

They’d kick off the middle frame with the man-advantage.

The Canucks began the second on the power play with fresh ice to work with.

PP1 – Mueller, Klimovich, Aman, Labate and Kudryavtsev
PP2 – Alriksson, Kravtsov, Berard, Wouters and Willander

Vilmer Alriksson collected the best chance of the stretch after the Canucks passed the puck around the perimeter before Wouters found the lanky forward in the slot.

Just before the five-minute mark, the Canucks took their second tripping minor of the game to send the Rocket to their third power play of the night.

Although the Canucks were well on their way to another successful kill, the captain (Wouters) took his second penalty of the game for another tripping call to send the home team on a 20-second 5-on-3.

Thankfully, Ty Young continued his A-plus form, bailing them out on multiple accounts.

It isn’t our intention to sound like a broken record, but with just seven shots to show for the Abby Canucks, Young’s highlights are all we have to provide.

The game took a bit of a dark turn in the back half of the period, after Chase Stillman dropped the gloves with Josiah Didier.

Unfortunately, Didier had lost his helmet while Stillman was in the process of dropping him to the ice before he went headfirst into the ice.

While a stretcher was initially called in, Didier was fortunately able to skate off the ice under his own power.

As a result of the play, Stillman was sent down the tunnel with a game misconduct.

The Canucks finally picked up a chance of their own, courtesy of Joseph Labate. Following the poised chip pass, Labate was sprung on an odd-man rush with Klimovich, where he held for a shot.

As had been the case all night, Jacob Fowler snagged it with ease for his 10th save of the game.

But that sparked some momentum, and as a result of a Laval penalty, the Canucks nearly cashed in for the equalizing tally.

Jacob Fowler was up for each task.

With Young being the exception, it was a long and lacklustre period for the Canucks. It wasn’t until the very last stretch that they finally collected some momentum, but it was without any success.

The home team opened the scoring early off another one-touch shot, which Young had little chance of stopping.

After gaining the zone, Davidson dumped the puck in deep. Attempting the big hit was Joe Arntsen, who unfortunately interrupted Chase Wouters, who went in to relieve Kudryavtsev, allowing the puck to slide right to Owen Beck.

With everyone out of sorts, a trailing Filip Mesar was left all alone in the slot before he put everything he had into a one-timer that beat Young clean to double the lead.

And when it rains, it pours, as it wouldn’t take long for the Rocket to triple their lead.

And it wasn’t pretty.

Looking to go D-to-D and get himself out of trouble, Kirill Kudryavtsev sent the puck toward his partner in front of the net.

Unfortunately, he fanned on the attempt and ended up sending it directly toward his own goalie’s pads, where Xavier Simoneau was waiting at the doorstep.

He poked it through, and despite a short meeting from the referees, the goal stood for a 3-0 deficit.

And without any offensive help, this game went from reachable to “let’s just get ready for tomorrow afternoon.”

Unfortunately, the Canucks failed to garner any chances for the remainder of the game to drop their first loss of the 2025-26 season.

It’s just the second time this team has been shut out in the Manny Malhotra era.

When you’re missing the bulk of your offensive hands, Abbotsford’s work is cut out for them to score goals consistently.

This game was the perfect endorsement of that.

Despite a strong game from Ty Young, they were outplayed in nearly every sense of the game.

Only star: Ty Young – This was one of those games that did not offer much to be proud of. That said, Ty Young did everything he could to keep his team relevant and make saves when asked.

Without much offensive help, goalies stealing games may be a common theme this season.

We won’t be giving either a star, but we thought that this was the best game of the season for both Tom Willander and Sawyer Mynio.

For Willander, he had made several strong defensive breakups while keeping the play alive, often at the offensive blueline. He was patient, calculated and effective.

Meanwhile, Mynio played a ton of minutes and, despite being outmuscled on occasion, held his own.

It won’t be long until these two square off for game 2 of their doubleheader. The puck drops at 12:00 pm PT at Bell Place to wrap up the two-game series.