Before the American Hockey League Coachella Valley Firebirds continued their ascent of the steep playoff ladder that is the Pacific Division bracket against No. 2 seed Abbotsford (BC) Thursday night in southern California, first-year CVF coach Derek Laxdal, not one for false praise, took a few moments to commend his squad, the third-youngest roster in the league.
“I just think our guys making the playoffs is a pretty good accomplishment by the group of guys we have, the young players we have,” said Laxdal after the Firebirds closed out division rival Calgary last Saturday. “Then obviously getting through a hard, physical veteran team in the first round shows a lot of the work and adversity our players have gone through this year. [Saturday], we didn’t have a full lineup again. The guys in the lineup gave it their all and did a great job of shutting down that team, and then obviously there was [Nikke] Kokko in the pipes [his first AHL shutout]. That was a prototypical playoff game where our guys got a goal, we checked well, we shut them down ... I thought our ‘D’ did a great job of handling their skill and size.”
Coachella Valley struck first on a goal from Ryan Winterton, the 2021 third-rounder who scored the game’s opening goal just 96 seconds into the contest. It marked Winterton’s first postseason goal this spring in his first game since missing Games 1 and 2. He was active all night, finishing with five shots on goal.
But Abbotsford struck for three goals on 14 shots on goal in the first period to take a lead that held up as the final score. The visitors had the jump on the Firebirds in the first period with just eight shots for the home squad. But Laxdal’s charges found their game and skating legs in the final 40 minutes outshooting Abbotsford 30-28 and forcing NHL-tested goaltender Arturs Silovs to make a couple of handfuls of Grade-A in both the second half of the middle period and across the final 20 minutes.
“We talked about it after the first period, said Laxdal Thursday night, pointing out all three opposing goals came off Coachella Valley turnovers. “When you get into a new playoff series, you're playing a different team. You learn their style a little bit. I thought we adjusted to their style pretty well after the first intermission. We carried most of the game. With a good hockey club like [Abbotsford], this isn't going to be easy. But the other side of that is we have to get a little more greasy around their net. We had some opportunities to shoot more pucks and we're looking for cute. Cute doesn't win in the playoffs.”
“That's an area we have to try to adjust going forward. You saw the team just get better throughout the game. I liked our second and third periods, we played them hard. They're a good team. They’ve got four lines deep, their ‘D’ is activated. One defenseman scored off the rush and another defenseman at the net. We found our game in the second and third, when we get the [scoring] chances, we have to bury them.”
Worth noting: Jacob Melanson, 2021 fifth-round, had another strong playoff performance and arguably was CVF’s top forward, especially a leader in the physicality the Firebirds exhibited in the game’s final 30 minutes (“he is definitely noticeable tonight,” said Hall of Famer and Firebirds color analyst Grant Fuhr during the broadcast). When Coachella Valley was pressuring a second plus tying goal in the game’s final two minutes with an extra skater, prospects and AHL rookies, defenseman Ty Nelson and forwards Jagger Firkus and Jani Nyman, along with Winterton were on the ice.
Lessons learned and confidence gained from staying apace and then some with Abbotsford will clearly applied to Game 2 and will no doubt be top of mind as Coachella Valley now faces an Abbotsford Canucks team that finished second in the rugged Pacific Division, just two points out of first-place to miss out on the only bye in the division. The other three AHL divisions all mete out two first-round byes, skipping the nail-biting sort of best-of-three first-round from which the Firebirds advanced. Abbotsford finished the regular season 8-1-1 and finished off No. 7 Tucson in the first round with a 5-0 shellacking in the loser-goes-home Game 3.
Series Begins with Two Firebirds Home Games
The second-round, best-of-five divisional series begins with Games 1 and 2 at Coachella Valley Thursday and Saturday. Higher-seed Abbotsford gets to host the final three games (if Games 4 and 5 are necessary). The Vancouver affiliate battled through several injuries to key players during the season but are now well fortified for the postseason with reassignments from the NHL Canucks and other players returning from injury. The challenge is similar to how Laxdal characterized Calgary, facing an opponent that plays hard and physical with skill and size. As Laxdal said, “We have to match their physicality” and he is clearly giving plenty of responsibility to Kraken prospects.
Firebirds defensemen Ville Ottavainen (2021 fourth-rounder) and Nelson (2022 third-rounder) are both playing formidable minutes on the back end with responsible defensive work that Laxdal has praised. Ottavainen earned the primary assist on the Game 1 overtime winner in Round 1. Five of the six Coachella Valley goals in the series were set up on primary assists from prospects, including Jani Nyman, Jagger Firkus, Jacob Melanson, and Ottavainen in Game 1 and 18-year-old 2024 second-rounder Nathan Villeneuve in the winning goal of Game 2. The sixth CVF goal was unassisted, scored by veteran John Hayman with a deft steal and an empty-goal to seal Game 2.
Laxdal said Round 2 promises more valuable experience for a roster with some dozen prospects on the rise: “This is the best thing an NHL organization can ask for player development, is to have your young players go through playoff series and move on to the next round. These are the moments where these kids take huge steps. You may not see it until next year, but this is part of the process for the development of our young Kraken.”
