GAMEDAY HARVEST: Woo, Barracuda!

2021-22 Regular Season, AHL Nucks Harvest 11 Minutes

Whatever happens tonight, it can’t be worse than Vancouver’s performance against the Colorado Avalanche, right?

RIGHT?!

To be completely honest, I woke up on my day off to drive my wife to work, and our car broke down in the process.

The exhaustion of my daily existence has left me without the required energy to hype up tonight’s attempt by the Abbotsford Canucks to quash their four-game losing skid.

THE OPPOSITION

The Barracuda enter Abbotsford hot off the heels of a pair of games versus the Texas Stars in which the two teams combined for twenty-two goals!

The Barracuda have three regulation wins to the Junior Canucks one.

TRANSACTIONS

With Tucker Poolman’s two-game suspension for the near-decapitation of Colorado’s Kiefer Sherwood, Bowey earns the first RD call-up of the season. He joins Jack Rathbone, who subbed in for Travis Hamonic, on this current Canucks US road trip.

STARTING ROSTER

Don’t feel like reading? Click here for spoilers!!

GAME 10:

1st period:

  • San Jose’s Joel Kellman take a holding penalty against John Stevens in the first two minutes of the period
    • Junior Canucks to the first powerplay of the game

PP1: Schilling, Di Giuseppe, Petan, Dries, Rempal

  • GOAL – ABBOTSFORD – 1-0 Canucks: Sheldon Rempal with his second goal in as many games off a simple cross-ice setup by Nic Petan. After entering the offensive zone, Phil Di Giuseppe (#34) chips the puck past Nicholas Meloche to Petan (#7), who sets up Rempal (#56) for the tap-in at the crease. You wouldn’t know Abbotsford’s powerplay ranks 21st in the league after this one because they made it look easy!
  • Nic Petan takes a slashing penalty to put the Canucks on their first penalty kill of the game.

PK1: Wouters, Stevens, Juulsen, Sautner

  • DiPietro with an early save
  • DiPietro makes a save but gives up a dicey rebound chance to San Jose’s Jayden Halbgewachs.
  • Di Giuseppe threatens shorthanded and draws a penalty against Sasha Chmelevski.
    • Canucks and Barracuda will play fifty-five seconds of 4-on-4 before the Canucks begin a minute and change of powerplay time.
  • GOAL – ABBOTSFORD – 3-0 Canucks: Will Lockwood makes it three-zip for Abbotsford with fourteen minutes left in the period. Jett Woo (#22) starts the sequence with a zone entry and evasion of San Jose’s Ryan Merkley before passing off to Lockwood (#10). Lockwood buzzes around the half wall before hitting the brakes to evade Nick Cicek’s er … check. Lockwood throws a shot to the crease, and it appears to ricochet off a San Jose player and past Zachary Emond.

PK1: Dries, Di Giuseppe, Sautner, Juulsen

PK2: Petan, Lockwood, Schilling, Woo

  • Canucks jump on a loose rebound and force the Barracuda to their zone for the re-entry attempt.

PK3: Stevens, Wouters, Sautner, Juulsen

  • John Stevens gets in the way of a pass and clears for Abbotsford
  • Seconds after the Leipert penalty expires, Nic Petan takes a minor penalty for delay of game after flipping the puck over the glass

PK1: Schilling, Stevens, Woo, Wouters

2nd period:

PP1: Petan, Rempal, Dries, Di Giuseppe, Schilling,

  • Underwhelming powerplay from Abbotsford as they lose the zone thirty seconds into the man-advantage

PP2: Focht, Lockwood, Klimovich, Woo, Arseneau

PK1: Lockwood, Petan, Juulsen, Schilling

  • Petan wins the d-zone faceoff, and the Canucks force San Jose to reset from their zone.
  • Joachim Blichfeld with a wrist shot that clips DiPietro’s glove and sails wide of the goalpost.

PK2: Stevens, Wouters, Woo, Brubacher

PK1: Dries, Di Giuseppe, Sautner, Juulsen

PK2: Wouters, Stevens, Schilling, (Sautner caught on a long shift)

PP1: Rempal, Di Giuseppe, Dries, Petan, Schilling

  • One minute into the powerplay and PP1 generates one cross-slot setup, but that’s it.

PP2: Lockwood, Woo, Focht, Arseneau, Klimovich

  • GOAL – ABBOTSFORD – 4-1 Canucks: Vinny Arseneau (#18) regains the most dangerous lead in hockey for Abbotsford off of a simple redirect from the net front. Focht picks up his sixth point on the season with the fantastic no-look feed from the left circle.

3rd period:

  • GOAL – ABBOTSFORD – 5-1 Canucks: San Jose’s Ryan Merkley makes a brutal turnover inside the d-zone, resulting in Sheldon Dries (#15) picking up his team-leading sixth goal on the season.

PK1: Lockwood, Petan, Sautner, Juulsen

PK2: Stevens, Wouters, Woo, Schilling

  • Abbotsford Canucks PK coasts through this one as Focht leaves the box with fifteen minutes left in the period.
  • GOAL – ABBOTSFORD – 6-1 Canucks: Sheldon Rempal (#56) picks up his second goal of the night after squeaking a shot past Melnichuk off a wraparound.
  • Barracuda is starting to play with some edge following the Rempal goal.

PK1: Petan, Locwkood, Sautner, Juulsen

  • Early clear for the Canucks PK to force San Jose to reset from their zone

PK2: Wouters, Stevens,

  • Nothing from San Jose

PK3: Dries, Di Giuseppe, Schilling, Woo

PK1: Petan, Lockwood, Juulsen, Sautner

  • Petan takes a minor penalty for cross-checking, giving the Barracuda an extended 5-on-3 powerplay.

PK1: Stevens, Sautner, Juulsen

  • A shot from Halbgewachs sails wide of DiPietro’s net, allowing the Canucks to clear the zone
    • Dries steps on for Stevens, followed by Lockwood for Dries
  • Sautner/Juulsen stayed out for the final 2:35 of the third period. Impressive work from the veteran duo.
  • Time winds down on the third period with San Jose edging Abbotsford in shots on goal, but down on the scoreboard by just a smidge.

RESULT:

Abbotsford Canucks def. San Jose Barracuda 7-1

SCORESHEET:

Game 10 Scoresheet vs. San Jose

TAKEAWAYS:

  • That’s one way to earn your second regulation win of the season! San Jose looked completely out of this one through the opening ten minutes. Only after a goalie change and a flurry of shot attempts did the Barracuda ever appear “in it.” Impressive performances by the Junior Canucks, top to bottom.

  • Ashton Sautner and Noah Juulsen played monster games for Abbotsford tonight in a defensive role. With Bowey, Hamonic, and Rathbone recalled to Vancouver, Juulsen and Sautner were used heavily as the pairing for d-zone starts and the PK. Through 60 minutes, they were arguably Abbotsfor’ds most reliable duo.
  • Sheldon Dries had an unbelievable game tonight. One goal, three assists, three shots on goal, one colossal shot-block, and he was on-ice for six of the Canucks seven goals tonight. The only goal he was not on the ice for was Arseneau’s goal to regain the Canucks three-goal lead.
  • Chase Wouters had a statement game. While he did not end up on the scoresheet, I thought he looked impressive on every shift. I love his tenacity and his work rate to fight for 50/50 pucks in open territory.
  • Jett Woo came into tonight’s game with zero points and a minus-three goal-differential at 5v5 through nine games played. With his performance tonight, he now has three points in ten games and a net-zero goal-differential at 5v5. However, his in-zone defensive coverage is still a bit hit-or-miss. Overall, I thought he played well tonight when it mattered.
  • Canucks penalty kill stopped eight of nine opportunities from San Jose. At 82%, their PK ranks thirteenth in the AHL.
    • Their powerplay went two for four which elevated their powerplay from 21st to thirteenth in a single evening.
  • Danila Klimovich, like Wouters, didn’t end up on the scoresheet, but he was a force on every shift. Rewatch any clip featuring his name and watch how calm and smooth he is controlling the puck under pressure. I thought his in-zone coverage looked vastly improved tonight; he appeared to be picking his spots much better and didn’t ever look lost as plays unfolded in the d-zone.
  • I will have to message David Quadrelli and find out what the deal is with DiPietro’s rebound control. Uncontrolled pucks were a serious issue in DiPietro’s game against Stockton and appeared even worse tonight against San Jose.
  • Carson Focht had a much cleaner game tonight than he did against Stockton. He still needs to work on keeping his feet moving inside the d-zone. The slashing call against him in the third period was a bit soft, but that play doesn’t happen if he keeps moving his feet to challenge the puck possessor.
  •  I don’t understand playing Devante Stephens as a forward if the coach is hardly going to play him. Just throw Ethan Keppen or Tristen Nielsen out there anyways. At least you’ll get PK utility out of those two.

Cody’s Three Stars

  1. Sheldon Dries
  2. Phil Di Giuseppe
  3. Jett Woo

HM: Chase Wouters

Next Up on the Docket

The Abbotsford Canucks return Sunday for the Barracuda rematch.

Plugs

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Published by Cody Severtson

Published

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