Who wants to win on the road, anyway? Am I right?!

The table was set for the Abbotsford Canucks to take the series and punch their ticket to their first Calder Cup Finals on Friday night in Cedar Park, Texas.

One more win was all it would take.

It was a low-scoring affair that saw Arshdeep Bains light the lamp for the first time this playoffs.

Unfortunately, the Texas Stars had a different script in mind. On Friday, the desperate team dodged elimination thanks to their backup goalie—an untested backup starting his first game of the Western Conference Finals.

Yes, the Stars played spoiler, striking early in overtime to keep their postseason alive.

Mercifully, the series switches back to Abbotsford, where the Canucks will have two stabs at advancing.

The Canucks’ lines mainly remained unchanged, the lone change being Sammy Blais replacing Ty Glover in his return to the lineup after a one-game layaway.

Blais lined up on the fourth line alongside Chase Wouters and Dino Kambeitz.

The big news came on the opposite end, with Stars’ Head Coach Neil Graham starting backup netminder Magnus Hellberg over Remi Poirier, whom Hellberg replaced midway through game four after giving up four goals on just 11 shots.

For the Canucks, it was Arturs Silvos getting the nod.

Di Giuseppe – Sasson ‐ Karlsson
Bains – Mueller – Klimovich
Nielsen – Khaira– Smith
Blais – Wouters – Kambeitz

Brisebois – Kudryavtsev
Wolanin – Mancini
Hirose – Woo

Silovs

The Abbotsford Canucks kicked things off by nearly snagging the opening goal off a crash-bang play at the netfront.

As two forwards stirred chaos, Akito Hirose’s point shot nearly redirected past Texas’ towering 6-foot-6 netminder, Hellberg.

As a consolation prize, the Canucks snagged the game’s first power play with Arshdeep Bains drawing a hooking penalty against Arttu Hyry.

Unfortunately, the Canucks were unable to capitalize on the advantage.

Right as the game reverted to even strength, the Canucks took a penalty of their own.

If you’ve been keeping tabs on this Calder run, you’ll know that this has been quite the theme for this series in particular.

The team’s penalty kill had been incredible heading into the series, boasting a 97.5% success rate. That efficacy has turned on its head in this series. Through five games, the club has allowed four goals on 16 opportunities (a 75% PK rate). Since heading to Texas, the club is 4 for 11, a lowly 63.4% PK success rate.

Justin Hryckowian’s fourth power play tally of the series put Abbotsford in an early hole for much of the night.

Matěj Blümel, the known sniper, danced toward center ice, faking a shot.

Meanwhile, Justin Hryckowian slipped away from Jett Woo. Taking a sly pass low, and with his back to the net, Hryckowian snuck a cheeky backhand past Arturs Silovs for a 1-0 Texas lead—his second straight game with a goal.

Moments later, with the Stars pressing, Kirill Kudryavtsev made a nice defensive play from behind the net.

Unfortunately, his attempt to go hard with a glass-and-out resulted in him getting under the puck, steering it directly out of play. The flub gave Texas a second straight power play opportunity, which was less than ideal.

Fortunately, the penalty kill was successful, with Silovs steering aside four shots.

Hoping to shift the tide, Bains darted up ice and up the middle, creating Abbotsford’s best chance, only for the mammoth Hellberg to stand tall. You know, as 6-foot-6 goalies tend to do.

There was no player in the American League more snakebitten than Arshdeep Bains, who had generated ample chances throughout this run for Abbotsford, only to sit as the only full-time skater without a goal.

The Canucks earned a second power play late in the first. Although the top line pressed for the full two minutes, they were held to the perimeter with little volume on goal to show for their efforts.

In a last-ditch attempt, Danila Klimovich leaned into the swagger earned during his Game 4 overtime winner, weaving in and out of traffic with speed for a stylish chance.

Unfortunately, nothing would come of it, and the Stars’ power play goal would hold as the period’s lone tally.

The middle frame began with a lot of uncertainty, as neither team could establish a solid run at a chance.

Nearly five minutes ticked by before the first shot, a tame effort casually gloved down by Silovs.

That low attempt theme continued through the first half of the period.

Things perked up midway when Victor Mancini got a bit too eager, landing an overzealous cross-check in the slot to gift the Stars their third power play of the night.

Silovs and the Canucks were up to the task, keeping things well within reach for themselves.

With offence looking scarcer than a Texas snowstorm, Nate Smith tried to spark something for Abbotsford.

But Hellberg, the Stars’ surprise netminder, kept cool, calm and collected, making 12 stops.

Smith kept at it, linking up with Blais for a sneaky give-and-go, but the puck refused to cooperate.

The best chance landed late, as Klimovich uncorked a point-blank shot, only to hear the frustrating ping of the iron. Most in the building assumed the shot went in, as did many of the players.

It started with Christian Wolanin’s solo hustle, feeding Mancini at the blue line. Mancini tossed a puck on net, and the rebound dropped to Klimovich, who couldn’t outsmart the post.

The Canucks finally grabbed the reins in the second half, hogging the chances late.

Although it had been a relatively clean game, tempers began boiling over at the tail end of the second period.

A Mancini hit lit the fuse, and scrums began popping off everywhere.

First, it was Ty Mueller squaring off with Alex Petrovic.

Second, Wolanin dropped the gloves with Capobianco.

Refs needed a solid 10 minutes to sort the chaos, dishing out 22 minutes of penalties.

It wasn’t an overly exciting period or game, for that matter, but the Canucks certainly took over for the second half. Although they had hit a hot goaltender, things appeared to be trending in the right direction for the Canucks. They just needed some luck.

The Abbotsford Canucks rode their second-period groove into the final frame, trying to make something happen.

Jujhar Khaira got things rolling with some hard-working board work, springing Bains and Kudryavtsev on an odd-man rush.

Itching to ditch his goal drought, Bains lined up a shot only to be brushed off by Hellberg yet again.

But the Canucks were given a power play and a prime opportunity to even the score.

It was there that Bains ripped that monkey off his back.

In the club’s late opportunity with the man advantage, the Stars rushed up the ice, forcing Silovs to make a crucial save.

Looking to start the odd-man rush, Max Sasson brought out the jets to rush up ice before dropping the puck to Bains. Executing a silky-smooth toe drag, Bains went far side on Hellberg for a beautiful finish on his slump-buster.

You knew one would eventually find the net after all of these attempts.

Silovs continued to hold his end of the bargain at the other end, making a big stop on Texas’ Cameron Hughes.

Credit to the passer for his unreal saucer outlet that sprang Hughes on his breakaway.

Fresh off a huge game-tying goal, Bains put his team down a man in the second half, forcing Silovs and the defence to provide a massive kill.

The Stars threw everything at them, even burning a timeout midway to keep their top line buzzing. Fortunately, a combination of Silovs’ glove and Mancini’s sprawl kept things even.

Pressing late, Smith pounced on a slick heads-up pass from Blais for a one-on-one chance against Hellberg.

Hellberg used all 6’6″ of his frame to make a sprawling save with his left leg, his 27th save of the match.

That sparked a lively shift from Smith, Blais, Khaira, Mancini, and  Wolanin, who peppered the net with shot attempts.

Ultimately, Abbotsford could not find a goal, and the series required overtime for the third time to determine a winner.

The Canucks were 3-1 in overtime periods heading into this game, a stat which should have given them a smidge of confidence.

Would they make it four and punch a ticket to the AHL finals?

They were certainly trying, with Khaira rifling a drop pass from Blais off of Hellberg’s left pad.

Sidenote: How about that outlet pass from the rookie Kudryavtsev? Not bad!

Hellberg’s save proved massive, as the puck went down the other way, allowing the Stars to capitalize on a greasy one to take Game 5, sending this series back to Abbotsford for Game 6.

Chasing down the initial rebound was Jack Becker, who connected with the Stars’ captain, Curtis McKenzie, for the clutch overtime-winning goal on a shot from point-blank range.

This low-scoring scrap had its moments.

Bains finally shook his goal drought with a slick power-play snipe, Silovs and the penalty kill mostly returned to form, and a late flurry of chances nearly had Abbotsford through to their first Calder Cup Finals.

The Texas Stars, propped up by their unflappable backup goalie Hellberg, snuck away with the overtime win to keep this series alive. The Canucks can’t be too hard on themselves in this loss. They tried, held a decent shot advantage, and kept the score tight against a desperate team for as long as possible.

Abbotsford were easily the better team for much of the second half. The club simply ran into a very hot goalie. If Hellberg doesn’t look sharp, then the outcome of this game is likely much different.

The series shifts back to Abbotsford for the final two games (if necessary) of the series. Game 6 puck drop is at 6:00 pm at the Abbotsford Centre.

If required, Game 7 will take place the very next day, on Monday, June 9th.