Abbotsford Canucks lose momentum in the third, falling to the Calgary Wranglers

SHAYLENE TIELMANN/GATG

December 2, 2025 kicked off the Abbotsford Canucks 4 game homestead at the newly appointed Rogers Forum against the Calgary Wranglers. 

Mackenzie MacEachern made his return to the Abbotsford ice after a stint up with the Vancouver Canucks. While Victor Mancini made his return to the Abbotsford ice after playing with Vancouver and an injury. Jackson Kunz and Jujhar Khaira made their returns to home ice after injury as well. 

Both teams battled hard from the start looking to open the scoring. Abbotsford had a couple of close calls in the early minutes of the game but could not capitalize on the shots.

Physicality was high but the plays and hits were clean leading to low penalty minutes in the first period. 

Calgary came close to a goal, but Ty Young remained in control of the net. 

Khaira and Calgary’s Lucas Ciona dropped gloves at 16:07, leading to both players taking 5 minute penalties for fighting. 

With less than a minute on the clock Abbotsford came close to opening the score, however, the period would end 0-0. 

Abbotsford started the second strong with a number of shots on net but could not get the puck into the net. 

Ben Berard headed to the box at 7:33 for hooking, giving Calgary the first man advantage of the night. Abbotsford came close to a short handed goal however, Ivan Prosvetov was able to keep the puck out. Abbotsford was successful on the penalty kill. 

Calgary’s David Silye headed to the box at 10:35 for holding, giving Abbotsford their first man advantage of the game. Calgary’s Nick Cicek took a cross-checking penalty moments later at 12:07. Putting Abbotsford 5-on-3 for 24 seconds. 

Calgary successfully killed the first penalty, but Abbotsford continued to apply the pressure looking to score the opening goal. 

MacEachern would take advantage of the final minutes of the power play scoring at 13:35. The goal was assisted by Kirill Kudryavtsev and Chase Wouters. This would be Wouters one-hundredth AHL point.  

Joseph LaBate headed to the box with 1:07 left in the second period for tripping. Putting Calgary on the power play. 

The second period would end 1-0 for Abbotsford. 

Calgary started the third period with 53 seconds left on the power play. Abbotsford was successful on the penalty kill keeping it 1-0. 

Abbotsford had a number of chances to widen the gap but Calgary’s Clark Bishop would tie the game at 5:02 in the third.

Both teams continued to battle hard in front of the net to score the tie breaking goal. 

Vilmer Alriksson broke the tie at 12:24 putting the game 2-1 for Abbotsford. The goal was assisted by Dino Kameitz and Victor Mancini. 

However, Calgary fought back and Justin Kirkland tied the game 2-2 at 15:07. 

Both teams battled hard in the dying minutes to score the game winner and keep it from going to overtime. 

It would be Calgary’s Carter King who would score the game winning goal with 31 seconds left on the clock. The game would end 3-2 for Calgary. 

Though Abbotsford played strong in the first 2 periods the third period continued to be a challenge for the team.

When asked about what happened in the third MacEachren commented; “I think we got a little comfortable where we [were] at and kind of gave up the lead. And kind of got away from our plan that was working.” 

Going into tomorrow's game MacEachren stated the goal is to “play the full sixty minutes”. 

The Abbotsford Canucks will face off against the Calgary Wranglers again tomorrow night December 3 at 7pm PST at Rogers Forum.