The Firebirds defeated the Tucson Roadrunners on Wednesday night at Acrisure Arena to take a 1-0 series lead in the first round of the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs. Joey Daccord stopped 45 of 46 Roadrunners’ shots while Firebirds’ captain Max McCormick netted two goals in the first postseason game in his team’s history. The Firebirds have a chance to eliminate the Roadrunners on Friday night in game two on home ice.
The Firebirds found three goals in the opening period to get out ahead of the Roadrunners. Coachella Valley earned a powerplay just 34 seconds into the game after Tucson took a too many men on the ice penalty. Kole Lind and Brogan Rafferty teamed up to put the puck off the stick of Max McCormick and into the net behind Ivan Prosvetov. The captain’s redirection was his fifth career AHL postseason goal and came 1:00 in.
Coachella Valley extended their lead on a backhander by Alexander True at 7:49. Ryker Evans found True into the offensive zone where he snuck a shot on the backhand past Prosvetov to make it 2-0. Cameron Hughes earned the secondary helper.
Kole Lind’s nifty move in front of the Roadrunners’ net helped the Firebirds to a 3-0 advantage in the first period. Evans and McCormick each earned the assists on Lind’s first career postseason goal.
Max McCormick added to his team’s total with his second powerplay goal of the game. The captain tipped in an Evans’ shot just eight seconds into the man-advantage to make it 4-0 at 8:03 of the second period. Kole Lind picked up his third point of the game with an assist on the goal.
Carsen Twarynski added an empty net goal at 16:19 od the third period to put the icing on the cake extend Coachella Valley’s lead to five. Ville Petman secured the lone assist on Twarynski’s first career postseason goal.
Tuscon scored with just 1:17 remaining to snap Joey Daccord’s shutout bid. Daccord stopped 45 of 46 Tucson shots to pick up his fourth career postseason victory. The Firebirds powerplay finished 2-for-6 and the penalty kill went 2-for-2.
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