Recap: Moose 2 vs Abbotsford 5

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Quick Hits

• Four Canucks had multi-point nights (Bains, Mueller, Klimovich, Mynio)
• The Moose outshot the Canucks 21-7 in the second period, but were outscored 3-1
• Nikita Tolopilo stopped 35 shots in the Abbotsford win

Game Story

The Manitoba Moose (15-12-2-0) stumbled in their first game back from the holiday break, falling 5-2 to the Abbotsford Canucks (9-16-3-3) at Canada Life Centre on Wednesday night.

Manitoba jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead 6:21 into the contest. Jaret Anderson-Dolan hit Zhilkin with a stretch pass, and the Moscow, Russia native turned on the jets to beat an Abbotsford defenceman. Zhilkin muscled a backhander through the pads of Nikita Tolopilo. Abbotsford tied the game ahead of the intermission. Danila Klimovich fired a one-timer past Domenic DiVincentiis on the power play, sending the teams to the locker rooms knotted at one. DiVincentiis made 11 stops in the opening 20, while Tolopilo turned away five Moose offerings.

The second saw the Canucks build a two-goal edge. Lukas Reichel gave the visitors their first lead of the game 3:15 in, and less than two minutes later, Ty Mueller added another to make it 3-1. Elias Salomonsson pounced on a loose puck just under 14 minutes into the period, cutting the Moose deficit to just one. Arshdeep Bains restored the Abbotsford two-goal advantage late in the period, firing another one-timer into the twine. Tolopilo made 20 stops for the Canucks in the period.

Arshdeep Bains was the only one to score in the third period, icing the game into an empty net in the late stages of the game. Tolopilo stopped all 10 shots he faced in the frame and made 35 saves in the contest, as the Canucks skated away 5-2 winners.

Quotable

Moose forward Danny Zhilkin (click for full interview)
"The good thing about this league is you play a lot of back-to-back games. We're going to keep going hard at them. We'll keep going to the net and try to use all of our resources. Hoping to get a win on Friday."

Statbook

• Ville Heinola tallied his eighth assist in eight games in December
• Danny Zhilkin collected a pair of points (1G, 1A), his third multi-point game of the season
• Elias Salomonsson scored his first goal of the campaign
• A season-high 7,437 were in attendance at Canada Life Centre