The Abbotsford Canucks are the 2025 Calder Cup champions.
The Vancouver Canucks’ AHL affiliate took home the title in a comeback win on enemy ice in Game 6 of their best of seven series with the Charlotte Checkers.
The Checkers struck twice in the first period, but the Canucks responded with three unanswered goals to seal the title.
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Sammy Blais cut the Checkers’ lead to one late in the first period, before Danila Klimovich evened the score, stuffing the puck past Checkers netminder Kaapo Kähkönen in the second period.
Linus Karlsson potted the go-ahead goal from the front of the net on a perfectly timed pass from Arsheep Bains with less than three minutes left in the second period.
Goaltender Artūrs Šilovs stopped 27 of 30 shots in the victory, and was awarded the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the playoff MVP.
Head coach Manny Malhotra and the club had the chance to seal its first-ever AHL championship in front of a sold-out home crowd on Saturday night in Abbotsford, but fell to 4-3 to the Checkers in overtime on a goal from Jesse Puljujärvi.
The Canucks got two goals from Linus Karlsson and one from Arsheep Bains in that contest.
A Canucks victory on Monday would be the first time a Canadian club has hoisted the Calder Cup since the 2017-2018 Toronto Marlies.
The Checkers, the AHL affiliate for the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, swept the Laval Rocket in the Eastern Conference final, while the Canucks bounced the Texas Stars in six games in the Western Conference final.
— with files from the Canadian Press
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