Kraken Farm Team Thrives
Captain Max McCormick recorded a hat trick as the Kraken’s American Hockey League farm team, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, won Game-1 of the Calder Cup western conference final over the Milwaukee Admirals 6-4. This, after giving up a 2-to-1 lead in the 2nd period and falling behind 3-to-2 in the 3rd.
Andrew Poturalski gave the Firebirds the lead back for good at 8:09 of the 3rd period, just 47-seconds after McCormick had tied things up with his first goal of night. The 31-year-old team captain of the inaugural AHL club added another at 10:54 of the final period before completing the hat trick with an empty-netter at 17:44.
The Admirals would tally a late goal to trim the final score.
Coachella Valley goaltender Joey Daccord picked up the win after facing 22 shots-on-goal. Rookie Tye Kartye, who emerged on the Kraken scene by scoring three goals in ten Stanley Cup playoff games for Seattle, opened the goal scoring and added an assist. He now has five points in six Calder Cup playoff games since relocating south.
In the eastern conference final the Hershey Bears evened their series at a game apiece with a 2-0 win over the Rochester Americans.
Rockin’ Riga
In a World Championship shocker, the Latvian national team upset Sweden 3-1 in the quarterfinal crossover round in a match played on home ice in Riga. Vancouver Canucks minor league goalie Arturs Silovs stopped 40 of 41 shots-on-goal in surprising Sweden, against whom the Latvians only mustered 18 shots. Swedish goalie Lars Johansson stopped 15 of them.
Riga native Mike Indrasis is the national hero, having scored the game winner at 4:55 of the 3rd period while adding an assist.
The Latvians will now take on Team Canada. The 2021 champs were 4-1 winners over co-host Finland. Half the preliminary (Group B) and quarterfinal games were played in Tampere, the location for both semi-finals and medal games.
Team USA will be there. They took care of business in their quarterfinal, shutting out the Czech Republic 3-0. Matt Coronato, the first round pick of the Calgary Flames in 2021 scored the game winner in the 1st period, 24-year-old former Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Nick Perbix scored in the 2nd period, and 2022 5th-overall draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers Cutter Gauthier wrapped things up for the Americans in the 3rd.
Team USA goalie Casey DeSmith made 15 saves for the shut-out. The team plays Germany in the other semi-final on Saturday.
Stars Extend
Joe Pavelski, who famously scored four goals for the Dallas Stars in a 5-4 2nd-round, Game-1 OT loss to the Seattle Kraken, scored the power play game winner in overtime to beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in Game-4 of the Western Conference Final on Thursday night.
Dallas avoided a four game sweep and will attempt to keep things going again in Game-5 in Las Vegas on Saturday evening. That one will start a little after 5 pm pacific.
The Florida Panthers will be licking their wounds, resting up, and awaiting their opponent. The Cats swept the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday night.
Schedule Notes
The Seattle Thunderbirds start their Memorial Cup efforts on Saturday afternoon in Kamloops against the Ontario Hockey League champion Peterborough Petes at 3 pm pacific. The T-Birds second game of the round robin portion will be Monday evening against the Quebec Remparts, the Quebec Major Junior League winners.
Coachella Valley will host Game-2 of their Calder Cup series on Saturday night before Games 3, 4, and 5 (if necessary) move to Milwaukee. If their needed, Games 6 and 7 will back on home ice for the Firebirds.
ICYMI:
— Kraken: The Future of Forward Ryan Donato
