Firebirds Advance To Second Round of Calder Cup Playoffs

An early first-period surge Sunday afternoon earned the Coachella Valley Firebirds a trip to the second round of the AHL playoffs, defeating the Tucson Roadrunners 5-1 to take the best of three series two games to one.
Just under four minutes into the game, center Ville Petman got the Firebirds on the board on just their second shot of the game. The Finnish center buried the rebound initially put on net by Austin Poganski.

Two minutes later, Shane Wright notched his first AHL playoff goal, setting up shop in the face-off circle to the right of goaltender Ivan Prosvetov and one-timing a pass from Kraken 2021 2nd-round draft pick David Goyette into the back of the net.

Kole Lind would continue the scoring just 29 seconds later. Lind used a Tucson player as a screen, firing a low wrist shot through his legs from distance past Prosvetov to put the Firebirds up three.
A minute after Lind's goal, Tye Kartye, named AHL Rookie of The Year last week, added to the scoresheet, collecting a pass from Cameron Hughes and sending a wrist shot past Prosvetov for Coachella's 4th goal of the afternoon. The Kartye tally marked the last action that Prosvetov would see, as he was pulled and replaced by Tyler Parks just over seven minutes into the game. Parks faced 17 shots in the second period, stopping all of them.
Midway through the third period, Lind added an insurance goal to put Coachella ahead 4-0. Joey Daccord's shutout bid would be ruined late 3rd period when Adam Cracknell tapped a rebound by the 26-year-old goaltender on the power play. On the night Daccord made 31 saves to earn the 2nd star of the game.
Next up for Coachella Valley is Colorado Avalanche AHL affiliate Colorado Eagles. The Eagles finished the regular season 3rd in the Pacific Division with 90 points and swept the Ontario Reign in their first-round series.
The Eagles boast a number of NHL-tested players, including 2021 3rd overall pick, Alex Galchenyuk and former Montreal Canadien, Charles Hudon.
The five-game series kicks off at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, CO with games one and two on Wednesday and Thursday. The series returns to Acrisure Arena for games 3, 4 (if necessary) and 5 (if necessary).