AHL Morning Skate: June 4, 2025

P2-Abbotsford Canucks vs. C2-Texas Stars
Game 4 – Tonight, 8:00 ET,
(Abbotsford leads series, 2-1)

Game 1 – Thu., May 29 – ABBOTSFORD 3, Texas 2 (OT) | Recap/Highlights
Game 2 – Sat., May 31 – ABBOTSFORD 1, Texas 0 | Recap/Highlights
Game 3 – Mon., June 2 – TEXAS 5, Abbotsford 2 | Recap/Highlights
Game 4 – Wed., June 4 – Abbotsford at Texas, 8:00
Game 5 – Fri., June 6 – Abbotsford at Texas, 8:00
*Game 6 – Sun., June 8 – Texas at Abbotsford, 9:00
*Game 7 – Mon., June 9 – Texas at Abbotsford, 10:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern

GAME NOTES
The Stars and Canucks battle in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals tonight, with Abbotsford up two games to one but Texas coming off a 5-2 win on Monday... The Stars scored four special-teams goals (two PPG, two SHG) in Game 3 against a Canucks team that had been 39-for-40 on the penalty kill in the playoffs and had surrendered only one shorthanded goal in 86 previous games this season... Matěj Blümel (5-7-12) scored twice in 92 seconds late in the first period, snapping a 1-1 tie and giving Texas the lead for good... Kole Lind (8-5-13), Antonio Stranges (2-0-2) and Michael Karow (1-3-4) also scored for Texas in Game 3, while Arttu Hyry (1-5-6) and Cameron Hughes (3-14-17) each recorded two assists... Hughes is one helper away from becoming the 17th player in AHL history to reach 50 career playoff assists... Karow’s goal was his first since Oct. 19, a span of 80 games... Remi Poirier (5-3, 1.90, .931) made 22 saves for the Stars in Game 3, allowing two goals or fewer for the seventh time in nine playoff starts... Christian Wolanin (2-1-3) scored his second goal of the series for the Canucks, and Linus Karlsson (8-7-15) added his eighth goal of the playoffs, tying Texas’ Lind for the league lead... Arshdeep Bains (0-11-11) registered two more assists in Game 3, giving him six helpers in the Canucks’ last four contests... Artūrs Šilovs (10-4, 1.84, .934) made 31 saves but allowed five goals in an AHL game for the first time since Jan. 7, 2024, at Coachella Valley... The teams were a combined 4-for-9 on the power play in Game 3 after going 0-for-7 over the first two games... The Stars became the first team to score two power-play goals and two shorthanded goals in the same playoff game since Colorado on May 11, 2022, vs. Ontario... Today is the 25th anniversary of Abbotsford head coach Manny Malhotra winning the Calder Cup as a forward with the Hartford Wolf Pack.

The Texas power play had not been particularly bad in a pair of road losses to Abbotsford. Nor had the penalty kill. Special-teams play simply had not gotten much work. Texas went a combined 0-for-5 on the power play in those two defeats and took care of Abbotsford’s two power-play chances across the two games as well.

But special teams were the story in Game 3, when only one of the seven goals scored on the night came at five-on-five.

The Stars generated two first-period goals on the power play, and Matěj Blümel finished off a shorthanded rush with a feed from Arttu Hyry that he slammed past Artūrs Šilovs to give Texas a 3-1 lead. Michael Karow added a shorthanded goal early in the third period that pushed the game out of reach.

Score twice on the power play and then tack on a pair of shorthanded goals, and any team should have a good chance to win.

“In full transparency, I think we left a little bit of meat on the bone there in the first two games,” Texas head coach Neil Graham said after Monday’s win. “Our power play has been good all year. We got a little bit stuck. It wasn’t something we couldn’t fix, but we needed everyone to recognize what we were looking at, and it was great execution by the guys on the ice.”

Blümel led the AHL with 39 regular-season goals, but his production had gone relatively quiet with one goal in the previous six games before Monday. Blümel had still been generating chances, recording 16 shots in that six-game stretch, but if those shots start to go in for him, that would be crucial as the Stars try to even this series tonight.

“I love to score,” Blümel said. “It’s been tough in the playoffs, but I kind of expected it, and you have to live through it and still believe that it’s going to go in at some point.”

The Canucks once again had to go without forward Aatu Räty in Game 3.

Räty missed eight games before returning to the Abbotsford lineup for Game 2 on Saturday, but he left that contest and did not return. The 22-year-old Räty tied for second on the team with 40 points (17 goals, 23 assists) despite playing just 43 games during the regular season. He also appeared in 33 NHL games for Vancouver and had 11 points (seven goals, four assists).

Ty Glover came back into the Abbotsford lineup for Game 3.

― with files from Patrick Williams