Abbotsford, BC – The Abbotsford Canucks were shutout by the Bakersfield Condors, 4-0 on Sunday afternoon at Abbotsford Centre. Stuart Skinner earned the clean sheet for the visitors and Arturs Silovs was credited with the loss for the Canucks.
The Condors sprinted out of the blocks tonight, applying pressure on both ends of the ice from the opening puck drop. Bakersfield outshot Abbotsford 13-6 in the opening 20 minutes, and ultimately scored the first goal at the 11:33 mark. Raphael Laviore found the back of the net to give Bakersfield a 1-0 lead.
Bakersfield doubled their lead less than three minutes into the second period when Lavoie scored his second goal of the game. Devin Brosseau had the helper as the Condors took a 3-0 lead.
Cooper Marody scored at the 15:22 mark of the second period to extend Bakersfield’s lead to 3-0. Dmitri Samorukov and Phillip Kent had the assists on the goal.
Dino Kambeitz connected on a one-timer and found the back of the net to make it 4-0 for Bakersfield. The goal came at the 12:15 mark of the third period.
That is how this game ended as the Canucks failed to generate much offensively, getting outshot 31-21 en route to being shut out by Stuart Skinner. Once again, the team was undermanned tonight with only 16 total skaters. Excuses are not relevant in professional sports, but it’s worth providing context to explain the struggles. Five of the 16 skaters are players with PTO contracts and much of the 11 other skaters have recently cleared Covid protocol to return to action.
It’s easy to play the blame game when a team is struggling, but in this situation, forces outside of their control have impeded their ability to achieve positive results. Hopefully Abby closes out this series with the Condors with a big win on Monday night at Abbotsford Centre.
By Brian Helberg
THREE STARS
- Raphael Lavoie, BAK (2-0-2)
- Stuart Skinner, BAK (21 SV, 1.000 SV%)
- Dmitri Samorukov, BAK (0-2-2)
PHOTO OF THE GAME
Overhead view of Abby goaltender, Arturs Silovs from Sunday’s loss.