Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Response. Counter-response. Point. Counterpoint. Back and forth the solution-seeking goes in a long playoff series.
The Abbotsford Canucks had come away with a split on the road in the first two games of the Calder Cup Finals against the Charlotte Checkers. Still, their 3-2 overtime loss in Game 2 this past Sunday had not sat well with head coach Manny Malhotra and his players. A sluggish start. Too many penalties. Too much letting the ultra-aggressive Checkers drive the play.
But maybe coming back home to Abbotsford could right the Canucks.
Malhotra got a response and then some from his players. After falling down a goal early, the Canucks responded. The Abbotsford power play continues to dominate against a Charlotte penalty kill that had stifled opponents in the previous three rounds of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Sammy Blais provided the second-period tying goal on the power play. After Linus Karlsson’s go-ahead goal opened the third period, another power-play strike, this one from Arshdeep Bains, sent the Canucks on their way to a third-period rout, a 6-1 victory, and a 2-1 series lead.
“I give them a lot of credit for responding the right way,” Malhotra said of his team following the win. “We weren’t overly happy with the performance last game. They obviously come at us with a ton of pressure, but we did a good job of executing when the opportunities were there.”
Game 4 is Thursday night at Abbotsford Centre, where the Canucks have gone 9-2 this postseason, with Game 5 to follow Saturday night. One way or another, Saturday will be the Canucks’ home finale, and they have positioned themselves to have a chance to win the Calder Cup on home ice.
Tuesday’s five-goal third period showed that the Canucks can dictate play rather than the Checkers, whose speed, tenacity, and all-out puck pursuit had frustrated and stymied opponents, the Canucks included, the entire postseason before Game 3. Charlotte had poured a combined 96 shots on Abbotsford in the opening two games of this series, a number that the Canucks had to cut down in order to pull back some of the control in this match-up.
A lot of that success came down to a “far better” effort, as Malhotra termed it. The Canucks won more puck battles, controlled both blue lines, won net-front battles, and therefore controlled the puck more often. They broke pucks out successfully, no small task against a forecheck like Charlotte’s. By the third period, that work had started to wear down the visitors, and the Canucks buried them under five goals. Bains excelled, rewarded with a four-point night (two goals, two assists). Blais continues to provide a ferocious presence on the forecheck and has broken out with six points (two goals, four assists) in his past four games. Karlsson had a goal and three assists, putting him into the Calder Cup Playoff scoring lead with 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in 21 games.
Now it’s the Checkers who must formulate a successful response before Game 4. The Checkers’ NHL parent team, the Florida Panthers, just won their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship Tuesday night, and that relentless mentality permeates that organization. Charlotte will have a response. Further and further each team will have to rely on depth and different looks to keep each other a bit off-balance as this series moves from one game to the next.
The Canucks know that reply is coming.
“There’s still a lot of work in front of us,” Blais stated.
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
