Canucks Bains’s Big Day Number 2 – His Encore Performance

Surrey native and Canucks prospect Arshdeep Bains started game-2 Sunday afternoon for the Canucks against the Winnipeg Jets in this little round robin weekend affair, following an excellent performance on Friday night against the Calgary Flames in which he scored the game winning goal.

“Pretty special,” Bains said postgame, “kind of a relief just getting it out of the way; keep going and get better every day.”

Last season’s Western Hockey League leading scorer for Red Deer had the opportunity to impress a full house at the South Okanagan Event Centre in Penticton, a crowd that included his parents.

“I had a lot of fun out there, our line did well, I thought we got better as the game went on,” Bains said. “that’s key in this and just looking forward to the next game.”

Bains with Chase Wouters and Linus Karlsson accounted for most of the Canucks offense in the 3-0 win, with Karlsson picking up two points including an empty-net goal. For game two, Bains was teamed with centre Nils Åman and Karlsson again.

In the first period against the Jets, Bains took an ill advised cross checking penalty, one his teammates were able to kill off. It seemed as though Abbotsford Canucks and tournament head coach Jeremy Colliton limited Bain’s ice time for a stretch after he came out of the box. Friday night, Colliton was nothing but impressed.

“I thought he was really good all night,” Colliton said Friday postgame. “It was nice that he got rewarded with a goal, but I think you would say that even if he hadn’t scored, I think you’d say that he was really solid, protected the puck, won races, he was on the puck it seemed like every time he was on the ice. That really helps your team to just settle down. Great net drive there to score, but I thought he was solid the whole game.”

“I feel pretty good out here,” Bains added. “I know it’s early, we’ve got a long way to go here and this is just kind of the first steps towards the dream.”

The NHL dream.

((Postgame essentials to the Canucks 4-1 win over the Jets.))