Sheldon Dries had a goal and an assist to pace the Abbotsford Canucks to a 4-2 win over the Colorado Eagles in the opener of their best-of-three Pacific Division first-round series at Blue Arena on Wednesday night.
The Canucks can wrap up the series with another win on Friday.
Dries, who spent three seasons with the Eagles from 2018-21, had scored a team-best 29 goals for Abbotsford during the regular season. He now has 13 goals and 14 points in 29 career Calder Cup Playoff games.
Arshdeep Bains and Linus Karlsson also scored for the Canucks and Zach Sawchenko made 27 saves to earn the win in his pro playoff debut. Sawchenko, who made only six appearances in the regular season for Abbotsford, got the start with Artūrs Šilovs and Nikita Tolopilo both on recall to Vancouver.
Cal Burke and Ivan Ivan scored for the Eagles, and Ivan Prosvetov stopped 14 of 17 shots in net.
(Abbotsford leads series, 1-0)
Game 1 – Wed., Apr. 24 – Abbotsford 4, COLORADO 2
Game 2 – Fri., Apr. 26 – Abbotsford at Colorado, 9:05
*Game 3 – Sun., Apr. 28 – Abbotsford at Colorado, 5:05
*if necessary… All times Eastern
