Two games into the Calder Cup Finals, the Abbotsford Canucks and Charlotte Checkers have moved past the getting-acquainted stage. They’re now fully into the heart of this series for the Calder Cup.

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Staging a pair of overtime games at Bojangles Coliseum this past weekend, each team emerged with a victory hard-fought, grinding, hot, and humid conditions. Now it’s a best-of-five series with teams going west for three match-ups this week at Abbotsford. Game 3 is tonight at 10 p.m. ET.

The clubs had no meaningful recent history before last Friday night. Now they do. Abbotsford undid a two-goal Charlotte lead, rallying to force overtime and then take a double-overtime 4-3 decision in Game 1. Artūrs Šilovs once again stood dominant, holding the Checkers to three goals on 54 shots. In last Sunday’s Game 2 matinee, the clubs got to 2-2 in the first period, went scoreless for the next two-plus period, and then saw Charlotte’s Mike Benning even the series on the power play in overtime.

Canucks agitating forward Sammy Blais has mixed it up multiple times with Charlotte players in Game 2 and also found himself the subject of Checkers fans less than pleased with his abrasiveness, physical play. He and Checkers forward Justin Sourdif have developed a quick rivalry; Blais nearly pasted Sourdif into the end boards early in the second period of Sunday’s Game 2. Moments later, Sourdif returned with a hit on Blais along the sideboards. Checkers defenseman Tobias Bjornfot took a heavy hit and did not return to Game 2.

Here are several questions as the teams get set for three games this week on Abbotsford ice.

How do the Canucks start?

Malhotra praises his team’s resilience.

Some of that resilience is required because of slow starts, however. The Checkers jumped on Abbotsford in Game 2, peppering the visitors with three shots and additional pressure in the first three minutes and getting on the scoreboard first. The Canucks managed to rally and end up at 2-2 by the end of the period, but they were outshot, 16-7.

They have managed to break three different Charlotte leads already in this series, but continuously relying on comebacks against an opponent like Charlotte is asking for trouble.

Now they have their home ice and what will be a loud, fired-up crowd at Abbotsford Centre. A fast start tonight is a must to back off a relentlessly puck-hungry team like the Checkers.

Can Šilovs hold up?

Šilovs has been an absolute workhorse for head coach Manny Malhotra and the Canucks this postseason.

His only time out of the Abbotsford crease this entire postseason came when he was lifted after the first period of Game 2 of the team’s Pacific Division Semifinal series against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The Firebirds tagged Šilovs with three first-period goals in that contest, one of the few times this spring that Šilovs has been less than dominant.

Perhaps his best work of the Calder Cup Playoffs has come facing the Checkers. Along with his 51-save night in Game 1, he fended off the Checkers for much of Game 2 as the Canucks were outshot, 42-13.

As the Checkers get to know him more and more, will they start to figure him out better? For a goaltender who will make his 21st start of the postseason tonight, will they finally begin to wear him down? In just two games, he has already faced 96 shots, and many of them have been in-tight. The Charlotte area’s hot, humid June weather had a clear effect on players in the first two games. That will not be a factor this week in Abbotsford, but for a goaltender like Šilovs who plays an aggressive, physical style, how will he hold up as the series moves along?

What about Kaapo Kähkönen?

While Šilovs, selected Monday to represent Latvia at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, is still trying to prove that he can be a full-time NHL goaltender, the 28-year-old Kähkönen already has done that. With 140 games to his name, Kähkönen came into this season as a solid candidate to get back-up work with Connor Hellebuyck and the Winnipeg Jets. That never happened. Kähkönen lost a training-camp battle to Eric Comrie, went on waivers, got claimed on waivers by the Colorado Avalanche, got reclaimed on waivers by the Jets, and eventually found himself with the last-place Manitoba Moose.

His rescue came March 6 when the Florida Panthers acquired him for the Jets for goaltender Chris Driedger and sent him to Charlotte. He took full control of the Charlotte number-one job for the Calder Cup Playoffs and has largely been outstanding.

Abbotsford has burned Kähkönen and the Checkers for six goals on just 37 combined shots in the opening two games. Certainly a lot of that has not been on Kähkönen, but he and the Checkers can clamp down on the Canucks, they have a chance to end this series by Saturday.

What is the state of the Charlotte power play?

For much of the Calder Cup Playoffs and into Game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals, the power play ranked as one of the few problem spots for the Checkers.

Malhotra lamented his team’s penalty trouble in Game 2, and it eventually burnt the Canucks. Charlotte ended up striking twice on the power play, including Benning’s game-winner. The Checkers are still only clicking at 9.4 percent on the power play, but Sunday brought about some signs of life. Certainly they have shown that they can punish teams with their power play. After all, this is a team that finished fifth in the AHL on the man-advantage in the regular season. Charlotte boasts all sorts of weapons up and down its line-up.

So, if the Checkers have started to figure out the Abbotsford penalty kill, and/or the Charlotte power play has regained some of its past confidence, it will become that much more mandatory that the Canucks stay away from penalties. 

Can the Canucks keep the Charlotte penalty kill in check?

It seems strange to have make the ability of an opponent’s penalty kill to score a key point of concern, but so it goes for any team facing Charlotte.

With the Checkers having combined for 22 shorthanded goals between the regular season and the Calder Cup Playoffs, the Charlotte penalty kill is a very real concern for opponents. Just ask the regular-season champion Laval Rocket, who saw the Eastern Conference Finals come unglued for them with their inability to handle Charlotte’s counterstriking penalty kill.

Let the Checkers pressure hard, force blue-line turnovers, and slip behind the opposition, and they can and will burn opponents. There have been a few blemishes for the Abbotsford power play so far, but the Canucks have kept them to a minimum and relied on Šilovs to bail them out when they have occurred.

And the best way to back off an aggressive penalty kill is with a potent power play, and the Canucks have done that, going 3-for-10 on the power play this series. They possess some elite puck-distributors like Arshdeep Bains and Christian Wolanin who can keep a penalty kill honest.

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