Abbotsford Canucks winless streak hits 10 games

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The Abbotsford Canucks franchise record losing streak has now reached 10 games.

The defending Calder Cup champions dropped games to the Colorado Eagles on Friday (Nov. 7) and Saturday (Nov. 8) as the winless steak hit double digits.

The last time a Vancouver Canucks AHL affiliate had a winless streak this long was the 2013-14 Utica Comets, who also went 10 games without a win from Oct. 11, 2013 to Nov. 7, 2013.

Abbotsford fell 3-2 in a shootout to the Eagles on Saturday, in what was one of the team’s better efforts this season.

Speedy Canucks forward Josh Bloom opened the scoring with his first career AHL goal at 8:18 and Abbotsford led 1-0 after 20 minutes. The Canucks also out shot Colorado 10-6 in the first.

Recent ECHL call-up Nick Poisson made it 2-0 Abbotsford with his first professional goal at 10:06 and the Canucks were sitting pretty at the halfway mark of the game. That quickly changed when former Abbotsford Canucks forward Tristen Nielsen potted a shorthanded goal at 14:00.

That shorthanded goal was the first of its kind that a Manny Malhotra coached team has allowed in a regular season game. The last time Abbotsford allowed a shorthanded goal was April, 2024 against the Manitoba Moose under coach Jeremy Colliton.

Nielsen tied the game up just 42 seconds and he already has eight goals this season for Colorado. In comparison, Abbotsford’s leading scorer Ben Berard has seven points. It was a good week for Nielsen, as he also made his NHL debut for the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday (Nov. 4).

The Canucks were outshot 11-4 in the middle frame and failed to generate many quality chances on Eagles goalie Isak Posch.

Abbotsford had a much better third period, out shooting Colorado 13-4, but were unable to beat Posch. The overtime solved nothing and Colorado got goals from Jayson Megna and Ivan Ivan to win the game. Abbotsford did get a shootout goal from Nils Aman, but both Vilmer Alriksson and Bloom were unsuccessful.

Abbotsford goalie Jonathan Lemieux, making his first AHL start, made 18 saves in the loss.

Abbotsford and Vancouver’s goaltending situation reached a ridiculous level this weekend, and it all began when Vancouver called up Jiri Patera after issues with Thatcher Demko. That led Abbotsford to call up Lemieux to back-up Ty Young.

However, Young was hurt in Friday’s game and the Canucks were then forced to bring up Aku Koskenvuo from Kalamazoo. Unfortunately for Abbotsford, Lemieux was not available by Friday evening and they were forced to play emergency back-up goalie C.J. Kier, who played in the third period on Friday.

Further complicating the Abbotsford goalie carousel is that regular starter Nikita Tolopilo is also hurt and has not played since Oct. 24.

Abbotsford also lost 4-1 on Friday and were out shot 27-11 in the loss. Colorado opened up a 2-0 lead after two and Nielsen made it 3-0 Eagles at 6:59 of the third. Alriksson scored his second of the year at 11:56 of the second to make it 3-1, but Colorado added a late goal to reach the 4-1 final.

The Canucks managed just three shots in the first and second periods and then recorded five in the third. Young made 18 saves in two periods, while Kier allowed two goals on seven shots in relief.

Abbotsford’s record drops to 2-8-0-2 on the season and they rank 10th in the Pacific Division and 31st overall in the 32-team AHL. The Canucks have just 20 goals in 12 games for an average of 1.67 goals per game. They’ve also scored only 11 even-strength goals in those 12 games.

The club returns home for games on Tuesday (Nov. 11) and Wednesday (Nov. 12) against the San Jose Barracuda. They then hit the road for games agains the San Diego Gulls on Saturday (Nov. 15) and the Coachella Valley Firebirds on Sunday (Nov. 16).

Continue visiting abbynews.com for ongoing coverage of the team.