The Abbotsford Canucks’ season is on the line Monday afternoon.
The Vancouver Canucks’ farmhands will play the Colorado Eagles in Loveland, Colo., in the deciding game of the best-of-five AHL Pacific Division final after the Eagles beat visiting Abbotsford 3-1 on Friday to knot the series at 2-2.
Monday’s opening faceoff at Blue Arena is 2:05 p.m.
The Eagles are the Colorado Avalanche’s farm team. They have home ice advantage since they won the Pacific Division regular season banner, with the Eagles (43-21-5-3) finishing two points ahead of runner-up Abbotsford (44-24-2-2). The Canucks did capture the season series between the teams, though, going 6-2-0-0 against the Eagles.
Colorado (26-6-2-2) had the league’s best home record in the regular season. Abbotsford (20-13-2-1) sported the ninth best away record. They went 2-2-0-0 in their regular season trips to Loveland, and they won Game 3 of this series there on Wednesday via a 3-2 overtime decision, with the winner coming the off stick of winger Linus Karlsson.
Karlsson is second in Abbotsford scoring in the post-season, with his eight points, including five goals. That leaves him behind only the 11 points put forth by winger Sammy Blais. Blais has tallied three times.
Centre Nate Smith bagged his third goal of the playoffs on Friday for Vancouver, scoring in the third period after Colorado had got out to a 3-0 lead on goals by winger Jean-Luc Foudy, centre Jayson Megna and winger Tye Felhaber.
Megna is a former Vancouver Canuck. Felhaber’s goal came on a power play, marking the first man-advantage goal that Abbotsford has allowed in these playoffs. The Abbotsford penalty kill is working at 97 per cent (32-of-33) in the post-season.
Artūrs Šilovs made 27 saves in the Abbotsford net Friday. Trent Miner turned away 24 shots for Colorado. Miner is a former Vancouver Giants netminder.
There are two more rounds left in the AHL playoffs after this one. The winner between Abbotsford and Colorado moves onto the Western Conference finals, where they’ll face either the Milwaukee Admirals or the Texas Stars.
Milwaukee, who are a Nashville Predators farm team, and Texas, who are a Dallas Stars affiliate, are knotted at 2-2 and play their deciding game on Sunday.
The Charlotte Checkers have already advanced to the Eastern Conference final, thanks to sweeping the Hershey Bears. They’re awaiting either the Laval Rocket or Rochester Americans, who play their fifth and deciding game on Sunday as well.
The Eastern and Western champions then square off for the Calder Cup. Hershey were the two-time reigning league champions.
Charlotte and Hershey are the farm teams for the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals, respectively. It’s the Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres for Laval and Rochester.
@SteveEwen