For the first time in franchise history, the Abbotsford Canucks are moving on to the Pacific Division Finals.
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It wasn't pretty, but the banged-up Farm team got the job done.

"It's the playoffs. They're all day-to-day," <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/abbotsford-canucks-confident-depth-amid-playoff-injuries">said Abbotsford Canucks Head</a> Coach Manny Maholtra ahead of their Game Four matchup with the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

On Friday night, the team in front of Arturs Silovs looked completely exhausted. Malhotra joked that everyone on his roster was day-to-day; now, he has seven days of rest and preparation ahead of him for his club's series against the Colorado Eagles. That's plenty of time for a club that eked out a series win against a difficult opponent to reset against an even tougher one. The loss of Aatu Räty and Jett Woo was evident in the club's series against Coachella Valley. While Joe Arnsten was a credible low-minute fill-in, the double-shifting of players like Victor Mancini, Guillaume Brisebois, Akito Hirose, and Kirill Kudryavtsev took its toll. For much of the club's Game Four victory, the team played without a fourth line, as Malhotra had to match his veterans against the heavy press of the Firebirds' stacked top six.

Seven days to give those players time to recuperate and possibly rejoin the rotation is massive.

Throughout the regular season, the Abbotsford Canucks dominated the Eagles, winning six of eight matches by a score of  27 to 21. He had two goals and two assists in the three games against the Eagles that Räty played.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let's focus on Friday night's historic victory.

In three opportunities to close out a series, first against Tucson and Friday night against Coachella Valley, Arturs Silovs improved his record in "the big game" to 2-1, including two shutouts. Silovs posted a .963 save percentage in those three games with a 1.12 goals-against-average. While Silovs wasn't able to clutch it out against the Edmonton Oilers during last year's Stanley Cup Playoffs because, well, they're the f*****g Oilers, Silovs has absolutely clutched it up for Abbotsford during these Calder Cup Playoffs—just ignore that game two against Tucson, where he let in three goals on nine shots.

Friday was a hard-earned victory for the organization, and closing the series now instead of on Sunday may have boosted the team's chances of an even longer Calder Playoff run.

Let's see how they did it.
<blockquote>Starting lineup</blockquote>
https://twitter.com/abbycanucks/status/1921023909320602016

Why mess with what worked, right?

For game four, it was the same lineup as game three for Manny Malhotra, with Cale Fleury replacing Brandon Biro for the Firebirds on the other side.
<blockquote>1st period</blockquote>
Hot off his first Calder Playoff goal, Kirill Kudryavtsev set the tone of the Canucks' series win with the game's first "oopsy," whiffing on the puck inside the neutral zone, gifting Coachella Valley an early and highly dangerous, two-on-one rush chance.

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Abbotsford would answer with a 3-on-2 not long after and would whiff on their shot attempt in a similar fashion.

Arshdeep Bains, whose most notable play in Abbotsford's 3-1 Game Three victory was a wide-open-net miss, looked sharp on the defensive side of the puck, hard-matched against the Firebirds' top line of Jagger Firkus, Logan Morrison, and Jacob Melanson.

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Both teams clamped down on offence in the early goings. Through the first ten minutes, neither club mustered much of anything in the way of dangerous chances. Coachella Valley held the advantage in shots, 3-1, but none of those shots for either club could be defined as "threatening." Both clubs were blocking passing lanes, deflecting shots, and generally keeping pucks away from their respective netminders. It was a tense atmosphere.

For the second time in as many games, the 5'8" Tristen Nielsen easily shook a check from the 6'5" Ville Ottavainen. After stealing a puck with a shoulder check in the neutral zone, the diminutive winger dropped the mammoth Finn with a stiff forearm off a dump-in.

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Nielsen's pestery drew the ire of Coachella Valley's John Hayden, who took a rather undisciplined interference minor while attempting to draw Nielsen into a fight.

The decision proved quite foolish, as the Farm's power play capitalized for the first time in the series to give Abbotsford an early 1-nothing lead.

1-0 Canucks: Max Sasson from Kirill Kudryavtsev and Sammy Blais

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It was a brilliantly simple play. Sammy Blais entered the zone off the wing, dropped back to Kudryavtsev for the one-timer off the point, and Max Sasson with a backhander on the rebound for his second of these playoffs.

Less than a minute later, the Canucks' PK went to work off a similarly undisciplined high-sticking minor penalty taken by Chase Wouters.

Without their premiere penalty-killing centerman, Malhotra threw a PK group featuring Ty Mueller, Phil Di Giuseppe, Guillaume Brisebois, and Victor Mancini. The PK couldn't have gone better, with back-to-back takeaways and rinkwide clearances from Brisebois to help eat precious seconds off Wouters' infraction.

The Firebirds' best look on their man advantage came off a drive down the wing from Jagger Firkus, whose lone chance was steered aside easily by Arturs Silovs.

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By killing Wouters' penalty, the Farm's PK moved to 18-for-18, an immaculate 100% successful PK rate.

With time winding down, Abbotsford rattled off a handful of shots on goal to help finish the period with a 9-7 advantage in shots on goal, including this innocuous wrister from Nielsen. To be fair, most of Abbotsford's shots in the late-goings of the opening frame were of the "innocuous" variety: point shots from a distance through traffic.

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Overall, it was a subdued period from both clubs that did finish with some spice, with Linus Karlsson taking a tripping minor penalty in the dying seconds of the period.
<blockquote>2nd period</blockquote>
To start the period, Blais and Coachella's Ian McKinnon exchanged jabs before puck-drop, resulting in both going to the box for offsetting minor penalties.

The home team did a great job denying offence for the second PK of the night. The Firebirds' best look came moments after Karlsson left the box, with Silovs clamping down on a cross-ice tap-in set up by Coachella's Jagger Firkus.

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The Canucks weren't too active through the first five minutes. However, the club pressed off an offensive-zone faceoff win, where Phil Di Giuseppe picked off a kick-pass from Ty Mueller before going between his legs for a shot attempt on a sprawled-out Nikke Kokko.

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If it worked, it would've been an all-timer.

Off a save by Silovs, Jujhar Khaira and Jacob Melanson took offsetting roughing penalties, sending the game to 4-on-4.

During the regular season, the Abbotsford Canucks outscored opposition 5-1 at 4-on-4. While the club dominated possession, a blown tire from Blais would give way to the best opportunity of 4-on-4, with Coachella's Cale Fleury rifling a shot off the post.

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The shot totals weren't too friendly to Abbotsford through the first ten minutes of the middle frame. While it was rather slanted, 9-3 for Coachella Valley, the Canucks spent a considerable amount of time in the offensive zone. Unfortunately, the club spent more time passing the puck to their opposition instead of passing it to linemates for meaningful shot attempts on goal.

A big hit from Nate Smith sparked a bit of life in the home crowd.

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Quietly, Akito Hirose had an excellent showing on a pairing with Kudryavtsev. The diminutive left-shot defenceman routinely broke up plays inside the natural zone, threw the body behind the net when needed, and generated shot attempts when called upon. Hirose's one-timer off the blue line with seven minutes remaining in the period deflected just wide of Kokko's left post and was the Farm's most meaningful look following Di Giuseppe's through-the-legs miss.

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Blais danced through several skaters in the final five minutes for a sharp angle attempt.

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Right as I was beginning to tweet, "I forgot Jonathan Lekkerimäki was in the lineup," he and his linemates combined for Abbotsford's best chance of the period, with Lekkerimäki floating a trickle just wide of Nikke Kokko's left post.

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The above was a totally cromulent shift for Lekkerimäki, who threw two checks, resulting in the back-to-back chances for him and Sasson.

The Farm would rally with a relatively impressive late push that helped close the gap on a dreadfully ugly shot deficit. Ahead of the final five minutes, the Firebirds outshot Abbotsford 11-4, with the home team finishing the first 40 narrowly down in shots, 18-17, but up 1-zip where it mattered most.
<blockquote>3rd period</blockquote>
Unsurprisingly, the trailing Firebirds pressured, hot and heavy to start the final period. Fortunately, Silovs was sharp as the team in front of him bobbled pucks and flubbed chances left, right, and centre.

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At one point, Guillaume Brisebois checked John Hayden into Silovs, crashing the 6'3" forward directly into Silovs' head.

The Canucks' inability to string tape-to-tape passes was a brutal issue in the second frame, worse so in the third, where several rush chances were scuttled due to poor passes.

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Even though the club did well to recover their errors, each quality recovery followed an equally subpar pass or shot attempt.

Whether related to exhaustion or the pressure of a one-goal lead on home ice with a chance to ice the series away, the team simply could not get their s**t together.

Lots of this, sadly:

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Silovs' was forced into heroics midway through the period on a point-blank chance from Ian McKinnon off a brilliant play from Tucker Robertson, who beat Brisebois to a clearance, negating the icing, and curling the puck into the slot for the most dangerous chance of the game.

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Past the midway point of the period, Jujhair Khaira caught his stick between the legs of Cale Fleury, gifting Coachella their third power play of the night.

Interestingly, Ty Mueller took the opening PK draw ahead of Chase Wouters. The rookie center won the draw, playing the puck off the wall to himself for the rinkwide clearance.

Hirose was stellar on the PK. On the Firebirds' final try, Hirose steered aside a loose puck into the half wall, got body positioning on his cheek, then battled for the loose puck to secure the rinkwide clearance and push the Canucks' PK to 19-for-19.

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Upon the return to 5-on-5, Blais drew a kneeing penalty against Luke Henman, giving Abbotsford a chance to ice things away.

They weren't able to ice it. However, we were gifted this clip of Tristen Nielsen laying out Melanson during a shorthanded wraparound attempt.

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Late in the frame, Arshdeep Bains negated a would-be goal with a fantastic backcheck on a wide-open opportunity for Coachella's David Goyette.

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With 2:39 left to go, Coachella Valley Head Coach Derek Laxdal pulled Nikke Kokko for the extra attacker on an offensive zone draw.

After a dicey first minute and two half-clears, Chase Wouters played a board-and-out to Max Sasson, who earned the Canucks a change with a dump-in from the red line.

Under pressure off a line change, Phil Di Giuseppe stole the puck in neutral territory, setting up Linus Karlsson with the empty netter, his first of the series.

2-0 Canucks: Linus Karlsson from Phil Di Giuseppe

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With 1:31 left, Laxdal pulled Kokko again for the extra attacker.

It wouldn't be enough, as the Canucks would hold the Firebirds to zero shots with the near-three-minute-long 6-on-5 advantage. In years past, the Firebirds pressure would have ultimately yielded an equalizer. This club was game, though. Despite 80% of the bounces going against their favour, they didn't panic, and the steady glove of Silovs' was the brick wall they needed when those bounces kept going the Firebirds' way.

It was a pretty ugly game, but an ugly history-making victory for the Farm team nevertheless, as they took down a long-time archnemesis in just four games.

Final Score: 2-0 Canucks

Series Score: 3-1 Abbotsford Canucks
<blockquote>Cody’s Three Stars</blockquote>
<ol>
 	<li>Arturs Silovs</li>
 	<li> Arturs Silovs</li>
 	<li>Arturs Silovs</li>
</ol>
Honourable mention: Akito Hirose and Phil Di Giuseppe
<blockquote>What are next?</blockquote>
The Canucks will meet the Colorado Eagles in the Pacific Division Finals. However, there will be a significant wait for that series to begin.

As the higher seed, the Colorado Eagles will decide whether they will host the first two or the final three games of their five-game series.

Regardless of where they play, game one is set for Friday, May 16th.

Sponsored by bet365
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