The new NCAA free agent signings didn’t take long to get into the AHL lineup.
Max Sasson and Andy Carroll both had some practice time before Thursday night’s game in Manitoba against the Moose.
Sasson found himself as the second-line centre, playing with Arshdeep Bains and Kyle Rau. As for Carroll, he was put onto the second pairing and was partnered with Zach Giuttari.
We’ll spend a bit of time talking about the two newcomers’ debuts. Let’s begin with Sasson.
Sasson picked up the puck in the neutral zone and made a nice little saucer pass to set up John Stevens for a quality scoring chance late in the first period.
There were a few glimpses of skill from Sasson throughout the game but he was pretty quiet in his debut. There were times when he was a bit out of position in the neutral zone but there were also a few successful backchecks that we noted. Sasson’s pace was strong and he looks like he will do just fine at the AHL level.
Carroll had an up-and-down night in his pro debut.
He was given some power play time and didn’t look out of place.
He did make a critical error with just under 10 minutes remaining in the second period. Carroll was the last man back and attempted to clear the puck out of his zone by banking it off the boards. The pass was under pressure and Carroll didn’t get it to where it needed to be. The Moose intercepted the attempted pass and came down to score to tie the game up at twos.
Even with the big blunder, I thought Carroll had a solid game. He can definitely skate at the AHL level, he may not be big but he makes up for it with his skating. He wasn’t caught out of position, he just kind of fit in as a pro in his debut. And as an AHL contract signing, he seemed to live up to and to a small degree, exceed expectations.
Let’s dive a bit more into the game now, and focus on the Canucks’ young prospects on the farm.
Jett Woo continued his strong play of late and was rewarded with an early goal in the game. He gave the Canucks and 2-0 lead after captain Chase Wouters scored early in the first period.
We’ve been impressed with Woo’s defensive play lately and his offensive side is beginning to shine.
Woo and his family hosted the Abbotsford Canucks at their restaurant on Monday night. I guess if you give good food, good things will come right back to you.
Sources say that the Kung Pao Chicken and chicken balls were the biggest hits at their restaurant. I’m not kidding, this is what I was told.
Danila Klimovich scored the fifth goal of the game, to give the Canucks a 3-2 lead. He gathered the puck on the boards and sent a pass back to Woo at the point. Following his pass, Klimovich went towards the dirty area and scooped the loose puck into the back of the net for his 13th goal of the season
Linus Karlsson added an empty-net goal to make it 4-2 and that was all she wrote.
But it won’t be all I’ve wrote, as we need to talk about Arturs Silovs.
Silovs stopped 25 of the 27 shots he faced and really locked it in after the second period.
The young goaltender saw a lot of scoring chances against in the final 20 minutes but stopped all 11 of the shots he face in the final stanza.
Silovs now has a 23-11-8 record with a 2.47 goals against average.
All in all, it was a good night for the newcomers and ultimately ended up becoming a good night for the Abbotsford Canucks.
They will face the same Manitoba Moose team on Saturday at 2:00 pm.
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