The Abbotsford Canucks withstood a late push from the Calgary Wranglers to hang on for a 4-3 win to open the American Hockey League regular season on Friday (Oct. 12) night in Alberta.

Canucks captain Chase Wouters opened the scoring at the 18-minute mark of the first, taking a cross-ice dish from Carsen Twarynski and beating Wranglers goalie Devin Cooley. 

Wouters makes it 1-0 Abbotsford

— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka)

About 90 seconds later it was newcomer Sammy Blais getting a nice bounce off of recently acquired defenceman Erik Brannstrom's centering pass and the Canucks led 2-0 after one. Abbotsford also held the 9-8 shots edge after the first period. 

Brannstrom puts the Canucks up 2-0

— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka)

Early in the second period saw Nathan Smith set-up Danila Klimovich, who turned on the after burners and made it 3-0 at 4:29. Klimovich scored just two goals last season and already lighting the lamp in game one is a positive sign for the 21-year-old former second round pick.

Klimovich scores after a nice set-up by Nathan Smith. Trent Cull must be SO ANNOYED

— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka)

The Wranglers finally beat Canucks goalie Nikita Tolopilo at 8:35 when former Canucks draft pick Hunter Brzustewicz found Rory Kerins in front of the net. 

Just a few minutes later it was Abbotsford's Tristen Nielsen retrieving a wide shot off the boards by defenceman Elias Pettersson and beating Cooley. Calgary's llya Solovyov made added a late goal to make it 4-2 after two.

Nielsen puts the Canucks up 4-1, nice wide shot by Pettersson to set that up

— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka)

Kerins added another goal, this time on the power play, at 8:01 of the third period to draw Calgary within one but that would be as close as the Wranglers would get. 

Forward Max Sasson led all Canucks players with three shots on goal, while Wouters and Blais both had two point nights. Tolopilo made 20 saves for the win. 

Forward Jonathan Lekkerimaki did not play and his status it not known. He did leave Saturday's intra-squad scimmage early after suffering what appeared to be an injury. Forward Phil Di Giuseppe and defenceman Christian Wolanin also did not play. It's unclear why they did not dress. 

The two teams meet again in Calgary on Sunday (Oct. 13)

LYPKA'S LAST TAKES:

• Excellent debut for Sammy Blais, who collected two points and was active on both offence and defence. He really carried the second line and is a great player to pair with Danila Klimovich.
• Elias Pettersson (defenceman) was very noticeable through his physical play and smart decisions. He did not look like an AHL rookie at all. Erik Brannstrom also seemed to fit in well. He moved the puck and had above-average speed for the AHL.
• Nikita Tolopilo was solid in goal and made key saves when called upon.
• The Canucks rolled with 11 forwards and seven defenceman. It's unclear how/if that will change when Lekkerimaki, Wolanin and Di Giuseppe are inserted back into the lineup. The power play went 0/4 and could have used a quarterback like Wolanin tonight.
• After two years of being a top team in the Pacific Division, it's clear that this year's edition of the Wranglers is a bit of step back and will have challenges scoring goals.