Evander Kane played his first game as a San Jose Barracuda on Sat Dec 11, 2021 against the Abbotsford Canucks at SAP Center in San Jose (Bay Area News Group photo)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE—This wasn’t just any typical AHL debut.

Evander Kane played in his first ever AHL game as the San Jose Barracuda loss 5-1 to the Abbotsford Canucks on Saturday afternoon at SAP Center.

San Jose have lost two games in a row and seven out of their past eight. Abbotsford have won three out of its past four games.

Kane, the embattled forward trying to make his back to the NHL, was on the ‘Cuda’s third line with Joel Kellman and Joachim Blichfeld.

“It was nice to get back out there and get the juices flowing,” said Kane after the game. “There’s some adjustments you need to make and how you read the play a little bit. But yeah, it was a good first game.”

Barracuda head coach Roy Sommer appreciated the effort by Kane in his first game in 213 days.

“For a guy who hasn’t been in a game in seven months, I thought he was pretty good. I thought his effort was there, he didn’t cheat us that way, (he) finished some hits. But it was his first game,” Sommer said.

Abbotsford (8-7-2-1) drew first blood on the power play early in the first period. Cameron Schilling found Sheldon Rempal along the right slot and Rempal snapped home a wrist shot past ‘Cuda goalie Zachary Sawchenko for his sixth goal of the season at the 5:38 mark.

The Canucks doubled its lead just over two minutes later. Madison Bowey sent a home run pass up the ice to Vincent Arseneau who skated in from the right wing and wired a wrist shot past Sawchenko for his second goal of the season at the 7:53 mark.

Both of Arseneau’s goals have come against San Jose this season.

Abbotsford scored its third unanswered goal of the period on an odd man rush. Nic Petan dished the puck over to Phil Di Giuseppe who slid a backhander past Sawchenko for his fifth goal of the season at the 14:48 mark.

Di Giuseppe leads the Canucks in points against the Barracuda this season with seven (4G, 3A).

The Canucks made it 4-0 just 23 seconds into the second period. Justin Bailey got around the ‘Cuda defense off a pass off the boards, skated in and beat Sawchenko with a point-blank shot for his fourth goal of the season. Danila Klimovich and Jet Woo were credited with the assists.

San Jose (6-11-1-0) finally answered back when Adam Raska was able to skate around the Canucks defense from the left wing and his shot deflected off a Canucks skate into the back of the net for his career AHL goal at the 7:32 mark. Jeffery Viel received the primary assist on Raska’s goal.

The goal set off a fleury of stuffed animals thrown onto the ice as it was the annual Teddy Bear Toss Night by the Barracuda.

The Barracuda outshot the Canucks 9-5 in the middle frame.

Abbotsford regained their four-goal lead early in the third period. A shot from the point by Bowey pinballed around the crease and a crashing Tristen Nielsen cleaned up the rebound for his second goal of the season at the 2:58 mark.

That ended the afternoon for Sawchenko as Sommer replaced him with Alexei Melnichuk. Sawchenko finished with 12 saves on 17 shots in 41:21 of ice time.

San Jose has given up four goals or more in six straight games and defensively the team’s confidence has been shaken during the past eight games.

“Right now, we’re kind of fragile. You can see it on the bench. When we get scored on everyone on the bench is like ‘oh man’,” said Sommer.

Canucks goalie Spencer Martin finished the game stopping 27 of the 28 shots he faced to earn the victory. Melnichuk was a perfect six for six coming in relief for Sawchenko in the third period.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 0-for-4 on the power play. Abbotsford was 1-for-2.

San Jose dropped to 2-5-1 at home and are 0-3 in playing afternoon games.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Rempal 2) Petan 3) Raska

UP NEXT: San Jose continues their three game homestand on Sunday 12/5 as they host the Abbotsford Canucks at 4:00pm at SAP Center.