For the second straight postseason, the Abbotsford Canucks meet the Colorado Eagles – but unlike last year the winner of this year's series gets a trip to the AHL's final four.
The Canucks opened the 2024 playoffs by winning two of three games in Colorado's Blue Arena. That series saw games two and three go to overtime, with Canucks captain Chase Wouters scoring the series winner.
Did you get deja vu? 🔁
— X - Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks)
See how the Abbotsford Canucks stacked up against the Colorado Eagles in the regular season, ahead of the third round of playoffs!
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This season the Eagles and Canucks finished first and second respectively in the division, but Abbotsford was the rare team that seemed to have Colorado's number. Abbotsford won six of the eight games the two teams played and edged the Eagles 2-1 the last time they squared off on Feb. 17.
Canucks forward Arshdeep Bains led the team in scoring during the series against the Eagles with eight points in six games. Other top contributors included: Jonathan Lekkerimaki (seven points in five games), Christian Wolanin (seven points in six games), Ty Mueller (six points in eight games) and Tristen Nielsen (four points in eight games).
Top five leading scorers for the in the regular season vs.:
— Ben Lypka (@BenLypka)
Bains – 8 points in 6 games
Lekkerimaki – 7 points in 5 games
Wolanin – 7 points in 6 games
Mueller – 6 points in 8 games
Nielsen – 4 points in 8 games
Silovs also went 4-0
Scalding hot Abbotsford goalie Arturs Silovs went a perfect 4-0 against the Eagles in the 2024-25 regular season.
The Eagles enter the series after earning round one bye due to the club finishing first in the Pacific Division. Colorado then eliminated the San Jose Barracuda 3-1 in the semifinal round. The Eagles opened with a game one 6-3 win in San Jose, but the Barracuda bounced back in game two and won 2-1 in overtime. Colorado then defeated San Jose 3-2 in overtime in game three on home ice and closed the series out with a 3-1 win on May 7.
Familiar foes for round three. We’ll kick things off in Abbotsford on Friday.
— y - Colorado Eagles (@ColoradoEagles)
Forwards Tye Felhaber, Jayson Megna and Matthew Phillips all recored six points in the series against San Jose. Megna is a former Vancouver Canucks who played 58 games for the club in 2017-18. He's been in the Colorado system since 2019-20. Phillips is a longtime Abbotsford Canucks killer and formerly horrified the team with both the Stockton Heat and the Calgary Wranglers.
Eagles forward T.J. Tynan has also traditionally given the Canucks headaches, particularly when he was a member of the Ontario Reign. He was held pointless against San Jose and may be a player to watch in this series.
Dialed in
— y - Colorado Eagles (@ColoradoEagles)
Colorado also has several skilled defenceman, including Jacob MacDonald – who won the Eddie Shore Award as the AHL's top defenceman this season. He scored 31 goals and 55 points this season for the Eagles. Those 31 goals are the most ever for a defenceman and 13 of his goals came on the power play. Jack Ahcan (41 points) and Calle Rosen (34 points) are two other defenders that can produce. Abbotsford had just one defenceman (Wolanin) who cracked the 30-point mark this season.
Trent Miner is the probable starter in goal for the Eagles and he finished the semifinal with a 3-1 record, a save percentage of .939 and a goals against average of 1.96. Miner finished 0-4 against the Canucks in the regular season.
Abbotsford head coach Manny Malhotra said the Eagles pose a challenge.
"There's a reason why they finished first in the division – they're a very high-pace and high-skill team that, if you give them time and space will make you pay," he said, following practice on Thursday (May 15). "Our mindset doesn't change defensively. We have to be good in structure, take away their opportunities to find those little pockets that give them time and space and be clean in our breakouts."
Every rep counts.
— X - Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks)
Malhotra said the week off for the Canucks has been useful.
"It's always nice at this time of year to be able to get guys some days off, some rest days and some maintenance days," he said. "That's big for our group. They [Colorado] have had four playoff games so far and they've been rested. We know what a high octane offence they have so the ability for us to get some rest under our belt has been big."
Playing Colorado is often a unique experience for Canucks forward Tristen Nielsen, as he is a former billet brother of Eagles goalie Trent Miner. They lived under the same roof when they played on the WHL's Vancouver Giants.
"He's a great guy but I want to put them by him," he said, laughing. "We talk pretty often, usually whenever I go to Colorado we'll say hi to each other or when he's in town. Always talking through the billet family too and every once in a while we reach out to each other."
Nielsen said Colorado will be a big test for the Canucks.
"They're a fast team, they're a transition team and they have some high-end skill and want to play off the rush," he said. "And they've got a really good power play – they have personnel on both sides and have two really good units. The big thing for us is staying out of the box and not creating turnovers."
The Eagles power play ranks fourth (28.6 per cent) in the AHL playoffs after the San Jose series and was sixth (20.1) in the regular season. Abbotsford's penalty kill has been a perfect 20/20 in the playoffs and is the best in the AHL. During the regular season Abbotsford was 17th in penalty kill (82.4 per cent) and 16th in power play (18.3 per cent). Colorado's penalty kill was sixth during the regular season and sits ninth so far in the playoffs.
Canucks defenceman Victor Mancini said he is looking forward to the series.
"Physically I'm feeling good," he said, when asked about how the playoff grind has treated him. "We had a couple of injuries in some games earlier and we were down to five D in one game and I thought everyone stepped up."
Defenceman Jett Woo and Christian Wolanin both missed the majoity of the second round series against the Coachella Valley Firebirds, but both players were practicing on Thursday. Forward Aatu Raty, who missed the final two games against the Firebirds, was not on the ice.
Eagerly awaiting Round 3 😤
— X - Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks)
This marks the deepest that the Abbotsford Canucks have ever gone in the Calder Cup playoffs, as the last two seasons saw the team eliminated in the semifinal round.
In other Canucks news, Malhotra said he's looking forward to working with new Vancouver head coach Adam Foote. The former assistant was introduced to the media as the team's new bench boss on Thursday. Malhotra was interviewed for the position and was believed to be one of the top candidates for the job.
"I played with Foote-y in Columbus [Blue Jackets] so I know him really well," he said. "It'll be very similar to the way things worked this year. We want the things to be seamless for the guys going up and just getting feedback from them in terms of what they want from our guys."
What's one more bird!? 🦅
— X - Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks)
Our Round 3 schedule against the Colorado Eagles just dropped! The Abbotsford Canucks will open up the series at home on May 16th and 18th, before heading on the road to finish the job!
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Malhotra said the head coach job opening up in Vancouver didn't really impact anything with the job he's been doing in Abbotsford.
"There wasn't a lot of extra noise in the room," he said, when asked about how Vancouver's moves effected Abbotsford. "Give credit on that to our veteran guys for being able to keep the noise out of there."
Mancini, who played 16 games this season in Vancouver and worked with Foote, said he's looking forward to working more with the new head coach.
"I'm very excited that he's been hired," he said. "Him being the D coach and getting to work with him these past few months after I was traded was really important to me. I thought I made strides in that short amount of time. So to be able to work with him is really exciting."
The Canucks and Eagles best-of-five series starts Friday (May 16) inside the Abbotsford Centre at 7 p.m. Game two is set for Sunday (May 18) at the same time and place. The series then shifts to Colorado for game three on Wednesday (May 21). Games four and five, if necessary, go down on May 23 and 25 in Colorado.
Continue visting abbynews.com for ongoing coverage of the Abbotsford Canucks' journey in the Calder Cup playoffs.
