‘Dad powers’ helps goalie Nikita Tolopilo guide Abbotsford Canucks to 2-1 win

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Nikita Tolopilo didn’t wait long to begin activating his dad powers in between the pipes for the Abbotsford Canucks.

The Belarusian goaltender and his wife welcomed a baby daughter to the world earlier this week and he celebrated her arrival with an outstanding performance in a Canucks 2-1 shootout win over the Calgary Wranglers inside the Rogers Forum on Wednesday (Dec. 3).

He made 23 saves to record his second win on the season and carried the Canucks to just their second win on home ice this season.

One of the key moments by Tolopilo to ensure the win occurred when Calgary’s Clark Bishop set up Justin Kirkland all alone in the slot with 1:48 left in the three-on-three overtime. Tolopilo stared Kirkland down and stuck out his right leg to deny the glorious opportunity.

He went on to stop three of four opportunities in the shootout to clinch the win for Abbotsford.

The other big star on the evening for Abbotsford was forward Danila Klimovich, who tied the game up with a late power play goal and then sent everyone home with the win clincher in the shootout. Klimovich went 17 games without a goal to open the season, but now has three goals in his last three games.

The 2021 second round pick led Abbotsford with 25 goals last season, so his offensive resurgence is a positive sign for the Canucks.

Kirkland opened the scoring at 16:32 of the first period and that goal stood all the way until Klimovich tied it up at 19:10 of the third. Abbotsford outshot Calgary 30-24 and had challenges solving rookie goalie Owen Say, who made 28 saves in a good performance.

A critical error occurred for Calgary at 18:03 of the third period when centre David Silye batted the puck with his hand off the face-off and that put the Wranglers down two men after Abbotsford pulled Tolopilo to make it a six-on-four. Another rarity happened on Wednesday, as the Abbotsford Canucks did not get called for a single penalty all game.

Forward Ben Berard led all Canucks with four shots on goal, while Klimovich recorded three. Calgary’s Bishop had a game-high five shots on goal. Wednesday also marked the return of defenceman Elias Pettersson to Abbotsford and he recorded one shot on goal and was a -1.

Wednesday’s win is a bounce-back result after the Canucks led 2-1 on Calgary late on Tuesday, but then fell 3-2 in regulation time.

After a scoreless first period, Abbotsford’s Mackenzie MacEachern opened the scoring at 13:35 of the second with a power play goal. Bishop tied the game up at 5:02 of the third, but Canucks rookie Vilmer Alriksson grabbed the lead back just over seven minutes later. A strange moment happened after Alriksson’s goal as starting goal Ivan Prosvetov was hurt on the play and forced to leave the game. Say replaced him for the final 7:36 and only faced three shots from Abbotsford.

The Wranglers pushed in the final seven minutes and got goals from Kirkland (15:07) and Carter King (19:29) to steal the win. Canucks goalie Ty Young made 20 saves in the loss and he remains winless on the season.

Berard led all players with six shots on goal and Bishop led Calgary with four.

Attendance on Tuesday was 3,322 and on Wednesday it was 2,870.

The Canucks record now sits at 5-14-1-2 and they remain in 10th place in the Pacific Division. The team has a home record of 2-7-0-1 and Wednesday was the first-ever win inside the renamed Rogers Forum.

Abbotsford has a busy weekend of action at the Rogers Forum as they welcome the Coachella Valley Firebirds for the annual Teddy Bear Toss on Saturday (Dec. 6). The team is also promoting its “Fifth Anniversary” game on Sunday (Dec. 7).