The Abbotsford Canucks completed the most successful season in franchise with an exclamation mark on Saturday (April 19), posting a critical 5-3 win over the Ontario Reign to clinch second place in the Pacific Division.
This matches the Canucks up with the seventh-seeded Tucson Roadrunners in the AHL first round best-of-three playoff series. Game one is set for Wednesday (April 23), game two goes on Thursday (April 24) and game three, if necessary, occurs on Saturday (April 26). Results were not available at press time, but visit for up-to-date information.
All games have a puck drop of 7 p.m. and are set for the Abbotsford Centre.
Saturday's win over Ontario saw the Canucks fall behind 1-0 just 3:34 into the game, however Abbotsford's Linus Karlsson answered back at 7:13 with his 23rd goal this season. The Reign snagged the lead back at 13:14, but Canucks defenceman Victor Mancini knotted the game back up at 15:32.
Karlsson pounces on a rebound to tie the game. His 23rd on the season
鈥� Ben Lypka (@BenLypka)
Mancini with a laser from the point and Canucks tie it up again
鈥� Ben Lypka (@BenLypka)
The tie was finally broken at 4:39 of the third when Abbotsford's Akito Hirose scored to give the Canucks their first lead. Ontario responded at 15:10, but the Canucks again pushed back when Max Sasson took advantage of a fortuitous bounce to put the Canucks up for good at 16:23. Arhsdeep Bains added an empty net goal at 17:46 to secure the win.
Hirose with a seeing eye shot, 3-2 Abbotsford
鈥� Ben Lypka (@BenLypka)
Sasson jumps on a weird bounce and Abbotsford grabs the lead back
鈥� Ben Lypka (@BenLypka)
Sasson had another excellent game and had his second straight three-point night. Mancini and Chase Wouters both had two-point nights and Karlsson led all players with four shots on goal. Wouters, Mancini, Phi Di Giuseppe and Tristen Nielsen all finished at a team-best +2.
Canucks goalie Nikita Tolopilo made 23 saves to record his AHL career-high 20th win on the season. Jiri Patera dressed as Abbotsford's back-up goalie on Saturday after Arturs Silovs had to leave Friday's (April 18) after the second period for an undisclosed reason.
REIGNED IN THE SEASON WITH A WIN 馃弳
鈥� X - Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks)
The Canucks finish the season with a franchise-best record of 44-24-2-2. The 44 wins represent the highest win total ever for the club, surpassing the previous mark of 40. Another incredible achievement by the club is they completed the entire AHL regular season without allowing a shorthanded goal. It's believed that has never been done by an AHL team.
Arshdeep Bains ended the season as the club's top scorer with 43 points in 50 games. Other team leaders included
- Goals: Dainlla Klimovich 鈥� 25
- Assists: Wolanin 鈥� 36
- Plus/Minus: Kirill Kudryavtsev 鈥� +18
- Penalty minutes: Jett Woo 鈥� 90
- Game-winning goals: Karlsson 鈥� 7
- Power play goals: Klimovich 鈥� 8
- Power play assists: Wolanin 鈥� 14
- Shooting percentage: Karlsson 鈥� 24 per cent
- Shots: Klimovich: 178
- Shorthanded goals: Wouters 鈥� 3
- Games: Wouters 鈥� 72 (only player to play all games)
- Wins: Tolopilo 鈥� 20
- Shutouts: Tolopilo 鈥� 4
- Save percentage: Silovs 鈥� .908
- Goals against average: Silovs 鈥� 2.41
Abbotsford and Tucson met eight times during the regular season, with the Roadrunners winning five of those meetings. Their last meeting saw Tucson beat Abbotsford 4-3 in overtime on Feb. 23.
Continue visiting for ongoing coverage of the Canucks' 2025 Calder Cup playoffs journey.
