The Abbotsford Canucks right winger Damila Klimovich (46) puts one on net against the San Jose Barracuda goaltender Alexi Melnichuk (1) who makes a save on Sun Nov 14, 2021 in Abbotsford BC (photo by the Abbotsford Canucks)

by Marko Ukalovic

ABBOTSFORD, British Colombia—Sasha Chemlevski scored the lone goal in the shootout as the San Jose Barracuda beat the Abbotsford Canucks 3-2 on Sunday afternoon at Abbotsford Centre.

San Jose split the two-game series with their newest Pacific Division rival in the first ever series between the two squads. The Vancouver Canucks moved its AHL team from Utica, New York to the border town 45 miles south of Vancouver.

A scoreless first period saw the Barracuda out shoot the Canucks 10-5 in the opening frame. Both goalies were on their game early on as both Alexei Melnichuk and Michael Dipierto were perfect.

Abbotsford (4-4-2-1) drew first blood early in the second period. Will Lockwood knocked Artemi Kniazev off the puck off from behind the net. Lockwood centered the puck out in front to Chase Wouters who buried the puck past Melnichuk for his first career AHL goal at the 3:35 mark.

San Jose (4-4-1-0) answered back just over a minute later. Zachary Gallant skated out to the point from behind the net and he sent a shot on net that pinballed off of DiPierto over to Evan Weinger who punched home the puck in the crease for his second goal of the season at the 4:52 mark.

Weinger has two goals in his past three games.

Abbotsford regained the lead late in the middle frame. Cameron Shilling sent a shot in on net from the left point that Melnichuk wasn’t able to handle and a crashing Jaris Lukosevicius cleaned up the rebound for his second goal of the season at the 15:38 mark.

The Barracuda scored the equalizer in early in the third period. Ryan Merkley found Noah Gregor with a pass at center ice. Gregor skated into the Canucks zone and fired a rolling puck top-shelf past DiPierto for his co-team lead fourth goal of the season at the 7:47 mark.

With the goal, Gregor has a career high six-game point streak for the ‘Cuda.

San Jose had the ice tilted in their favor in the third period as they out shot Abbotsford 12-1.

Not many scoring chances were generated in the overtime period as there were only a combined four shots on goal.

Melnichuk finished the game 20 saves on 22 shots to earn his third victory of the season. DiPierto made 37 saves on 39 shots in the losing effort.

Each goaltender was brilliant in the shootout as nine straight shooters failed to score until Chmelevski’s heroics ended the game.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 0-for-4 on the power play. Abbotsford was 0-for-6.

The Stars of the Game were: 1) Gregor 2) DiPierto 3) Wouters.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda return home to start a three-game homestand on Wednesday 11/17 as they host the Bakersfield Condors at 7:00pm at SAP Center.