The long weekend felt extra long for the Abbotsford Canucks after being beat twice on home ice by the San Jose Barracuda.
The Canucks fell 4-3 on Saturday (Feb. 18) and then were shelled 7-2 on Monday (Feb. 20).
A third period collapse spelled doom for Abbotsford on Saturday, as they were up 2-1 early into the final frame but then allowed three consecutive goals to suffer the loss.
The teams traded goals in the first, with Abbotsford鈥檚 Wyatt Kalynuk scoring at 10:11 and San Jose鈥檚 Andrew Agozzino evening the game up at 17:08. A scoreless second period followed, and the Canucks jumped ahead 2-1 in the third when Nils H枚glander scored on the power play at 1:31.
KALY-fornia dreamin' 馃幎
鈥 Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks)
Wyatt Kalynuk blasts one home from the point 馃殌
The Barracuda then got two goals in 17 seconds, with William Eklund scoring at 3:03 on the power play and C.J. Suess puttin San Jose up for good at 3:20. Suess scored again at 5:36 to put the game out of reach. Abbotsford鈥檚 Danila Klimovich added a goal at 9:41.
The Canucks outshot the Barracuda 39-24 and Spencer Martin recorded the loss. Defenceman Jack Rathbone led all players with seven shots on goal.
Monday鈥檚 afternoon game was a disaster early, with San Jose opening up a 4-0 lead at the 12:34 mark of the first period. The Barracuda added two more in the second and one in the third. The Canucks responded with goals from Tristen Nielsen in the second and Kyle Rau in the third.
The deflection off of Rau sneaks into the cage 馃
鈥 Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks)
Martin allowed seven goals on 34 shots in the loss. His early numbers in the AHL are not great, as he has a record of 1-3, a goals against average of 4.09 and a save percentage of .875. Abbotsford did hold the 39-34 shots edge in the game and were led by H枚glander who fired six on goal.
Final.
鈥 Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks)
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 do what needed to be done to get a result,鈥 Canucks head coach Jeremy Colliton said after the game. 鈥淒isappointed with the response and I expected us to be a lot better.鈥
An emerging story has been the play of forward Aatu R盲ty. The key piece in the Bo Horvat trade has just one assist in eight games for Abbotsford. He said it鈥檚 been a challenging transition from the New York Islanders organization to the Canucks.
鈥淣ot great, I鈥檝e been playing horrible,鈥 he said, when asked about his play. 鈥淚 hope it gets better, I鈥檓 trying my best every game and trying to work hard.鈥
Another concern for the Canucks is the team鈥檚 penalty killing. They allowed four goals over the two games against San Jose and for the season are at 77.4 per cent. That puts them as the worst in the 10-team Pacific Division and tied for 25th in the AHL.
The allowed four power play goals in two games against the and now have the worst PK in the Pacific Division (tied for 25th in the AHL) 馃槵
鈥 Ben Lypka (@BenLypka)
Despite the pair of losses, the Canucks remain in third place in the Pacific with a record of 29-18-2-2. The team now hits the road for a pair of games against the Colorado Eagles on Friday (Feb. 24) and Saturday (Feb. 25).
The next home game is set for March 7 when the Manitoba Moose come to Abbotsford.