Abby Canucks Down Reign – Dowling 500th Career Game

Photo Credit Mark Steffens

The six game home stand was not only entertaining but also shows their fan base that they are not only there to stay, but clearly in search of a championship win.

Saturday’s game against the Ontario Reign was the rematch of the previous night that saw Justin Dowling play in his 500th AHL game and enter the game on a five-game point streak while short of five assists away from reaching  250 AHL assists in his career.

Canuck’s Spencer Martin was replaced by Arturs Silovs took over for Spencer Martin after Martin picked up his first AHL shutout of the season while the other end saw Cal Petersen wanting to rebound from the previous night following the 4-0 loss.

The Reign outshot the Canucks 12-5 in the first with Silovs having a solid period refusing any to get past him turning all aside, but the Canucks opened the scoring in the second for the sixth consecutive game.

A short four minutes later, Abbotsford doubled their lead with their leading scorer Linus Karlsson getting his 20th that saw Quinn Schmiemann send a pass to center ice after a stretch pass from Arsh Bains. 

The Reign finally got one but not until their 26th shot prior to the ten minute mark of the second with Andersson getting his 24th goal of the season. 

As if you were watching a tennis match, Canucks Matt Alfaro batted the puck forward with Arshdeep Bains getting the first short-handed goal of his AHL career, moving around Taylor Ward then sending one top shelf with just 45 seconds remaining in the second.

Abby were up 3-1 after two but were clearly being dominated in the shot department by 33-12 through two periods.

The third saw Matt Alfaro continue his third-career multi point game in the opening minutes getting free with Marc Gatcomb sending a pass to Alfaro who put it over Petersen’s glove getting his second of the game and third of the season.

Jett Woo got his second goal making it his fourth point in his last five games at the mid-way mark of the third period with Lias Andersson getting a consolation goal with six minutes remaining. 

The Canucks pulled out a 5-2 win and through the six game homestand they managed to grab nine of twelve possible points opening an 11 point spread over the 5th place Ontario squad.

Arturs Silovs finished with 42 saves, while Matt Alfaro registered his first-career AHL multi-goal. 

Cal Petersen stopped 19 of the 24 Abbotsford shots while Lias Andersson snapped his 11 game goalless drought.

The Canucks are on their final road trip of the regular season, with one game in Bakersfield on Wednesday, followed by a weekend series in Ontario that have Abby finishing their road trip with a pair of games in the “Peg” against the Moose on Thursday and Saturday. 

They return home to wrap up the regular season against Ontario and Calgary.

In conversation with several fans attending the game they are wondering how many players and who the parent Vancouver Canucks will send down to the “farm.?

Tickets  to an upcoming Abbotsford Canucks game, please click HERE.