Carl Lindbom sat on the bench as the Henderson Silver Knights pressed with an extra attacker, their net empty and the crowd at Lee’s Family Forum on its feet. Tension was high as Henderson was still looking for an equalizer while Abbotsford held on to a 1-0 lead.
Every second seemed like an eternity as time ticked by. That was until Tanner Laczynski scored on a wide open net after the puck was loose in front of the net, giving the Silver Knights the tie.
“He’s a big, heavy, strong guy in this league, [a] “A guy who can go on offense,” head coach Ryan Craig said after the 2-1 overtime loss. “We expect him to have a lot of pucks, heavy in the faceoff circle and going into the tough areas to score.”
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The Silver Knights fell in their opener on Friday night, but will have another chance tomorrow. Here is the summary of the game.
Silver Knights fall to Canucks in overtime
The Silver Knights were buoyed by 2021 seventh-round netminder Lindbom, who posted a 2.01 goals-against average and stopped 28 of 30 shots.
“Carl picked up where he left off last year, where he started camp,” Craig said. “I thought he was solid for his first regular-season start of the year, and we expect the same from him.”
Lindbom won 18 games in 36 appearances last season and continues to guide the Silver Knights on the backend.
Along with Lindbom, the Silver Knights also have a decent number of veterans on the team to start the 2025-2026 season. The defense is led by alternate captain Jaycob Megna. Despite the loss, the veteran sees optimism in their performance.
“That was a big point,” Megna said. “Those are important towards the end of the season. You may not remember them, but it’s always important to stand up for them.”
Last season the Canucks won the 2025 Calder Cupand as the reigning champions of the American hockey leagueMegna enjoys the challenge of playing against last year’s champions.
“They play the same style as last year,” Megna said. “That’s a winning formula. So it’s good to go against teams that are organized and have some kind of game plan, and you kind of see where you are.”
The Silver Knights are now 3-2-1 all-time in season openers, but with eleven new faces on the roster, growing pains are inevitable this season.
“It’s just a matter of learning the competition, learning what counts,” Craig said. “I think we can do a better job of putting the pucks behind them, forechecking, keeping the pucks in the offensive zone, things like that.”
Nearly halfway through the second period, Ben Berard scored to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead. The Silver Knights had a chance on the five-on-three power play but failed to convert and went 0/2 on the night.
“We haven’t had a lot of game replays with these groups,” Craig said. “I think it’s a matter of guys playing positions and finding ways. I like that we attacked.”
After Laczynski’s goal late in the third period, the Canucks kept the puck in overtime, Max Sasson scored and Abbotsford walked away with a season-opening victory.
“That really wasn’t possible, I couldn’t get an early lead,” said Craig. “But I thought we stuck with it. We were in the third period trying to get a point.”
The Silver Knights will play Abbotsford again tomorrow at 6:00 PM PDT and will look to get into the win column to start the 2025-2026 season.
“We were excited to play, and you could tell, and I think they kind of settled into their game and pushed themselves,” Megna said. “I didn’t think we performed as well as we could have all night, but the effort was definitely there.”
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