The Canucks and Kraken farm teams are going at it head-to-head in the Calder Cup playoffs and there’s no doubt that this week will be a big one.
The best-of-five 2nd-round series between the Abbotsford Canucks and the Coachella Valley Firebirds heads to British Columbia with the match-up tied at one game apiece.
The Kraken AHL’ers will be on the road for the remainder of the series after hosting the first two games at Acrisure Arena outside of Palm Desert, California.
Abbotsford took Game-1 last Thursday night by a final of 3-1. All of the scoring came in the 1st period with the Canucks tallying three unanswered goals after Ryan Winterton of the Firebirds opened the scoring just 96-seconds into the game.
Abby goalie Arturs Silovs made 29 saves for the victory.
On Saturday, Coachella Valley survived a nail-biter. Jacob Melanson, a player who Kraken managed described to Seattle Hockey Insider as “one to watch”, notched the game winning goal at 4:45 of sudden death overtime. He added an assist on Ben Meyers’s game-tying goal in the 3rd period.
To give a general idea of how close the series has been thus far, the cumulative shots-on-goal over two games stand at 61-58 for Coachella Valley.
The physicality was turned up a notch in Game-2, a match that included a 1st period fight between Jujhar Khaira and Ian McKinnon at the 2:21 mark. Abby’s Khaira finished with the “Gordie Howe Hat Trick”, adding two goals and an assist to his fisticuffs.
Games 3 and 4 are Wednesday and Friday night at Abbotsford Centre, with a deciding Game-5 on Sunday if necessary. All are listed as 7 pm starts.
