The Kraken’s American Hockey League farm team won Game-1 of the Calder Cup Final on Thursday night in convincing fashion. On home ice, the Coachella Valley Firebirds shut-out the Hershey Bears 5-0.
It’s always nice when you can get the game winner out of the way at the 9:02 mark of the 1st period. That’s when Tye Kartye lit the lamp to give the Firebirds a 1-0 lead. The Kraken affiliate never looked back.
Kole Lind helped on that goal with his Calder Cup leading 17th assist and 24th point. He would add number-18 and 25 on Ville Petman’s even strength goal at 6:54 of the 2nd period and then his 19th and 26th on Andrew Poturalski’s goal at 1:59 of the 3rd. Three-nothing Firebirds.
Jesper Froden and Alexander True would tally the final two markers 38-seconds apart midway through the final stanza to arrive at the final score.
Firebirds goalie Joey Daccord, who saw five games of action with the Kraken this past season, made 25 saves for the shut-out.
Kraken the Whip
Getting an early lead in a game is always a bonus, as is jumping out in front of a series. The Firebirds are now five-for-five in that department.
Back when the Kraken were still playing postseason games, the Firebirds opened their initial best of three series with the Tucson Roadrunners with a 5-1 win. Next up, the best of five against the Colorado Eagles and Coachella Valley were winners on the road 6-2.
The biggest series opening challenge came next against the top seeded Calgary Wranglers and the Firebirds were once again up to the task, winning 6-3 in Alberta. In the conference final against the Milwaukee Admirals, the home team ‘Birds won 6-4.
And now the Hershey Bears. Coachella Valley can take a stranglehold against the AHL’s oldest franchise with a win on Saturday night at the Acrisure Arena.
Panthers Pounce
Speaking of a team that was already down nothing, the Florida Panthers were in deep doo-doo trailing the Stanley Cup Final 2-games-to-none before pulling out Game-3 on home ice 3-2 in overtime against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night. Matthew Tkachuk scored the game tying goal with a little more than two minutes to play before Cats defenseman Carter Verhaeghe scored the winner at the 4:57 mark of OT. It was the blueliner’s 7th goal of the playoffs.
What does it mean? It means all of you hockey fans in Seattle, new and old, will have an opportunity to take in a double dose of hockey drama on a Saturday night. The events are conveniently staggered.
Puck drop for Game-4 of the Stanley Cup Final is a little after 5 pm pacific. Puck drop for Game-2 of the Calder Cup Final is a little after 7 pm pacific.
