Firebirds Rally Late, Fall in Game 6 Overtime

The storybook ending for Coachella Valley appeared still palpable when veteran forward Cameron Hughes took a tantalizing tight shot net-front with 43 seconds into Game 6 overtime of the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Final. Hughes and young linemates Shane Wright and Ryan Winterton had quite the productive night: Two goals for Winterton (he shot just wide in overtime to prompt the Hughes close-in attempt) and three assists apiece for Hughes and Wright, the latter two helping on Winterton’s scores plus a game-tying goal by defenseman Cale Fleury with less than three minutes remaining in the third period.

But Hershey goalie Hunter Shepard found a way to stop Hughes's shot, which would have been his first goal of the postseason to go with 16 assists, leading both the Firebirds and the AHL during this spring’s playoffs. Twenty-three seconds later, off a giveaway in the Coachella Valley zone, Hershey forward Matt Strome (with two brothers also NHL-affiliated) raced to the net with the puck and Firebirds fans’ hopes, beating Chris Driedger for a 5-4 final that clinched the 2024 Cup final in six games.

The OT dagger was all too familiar and heart-wrenching for Coachella Valley; Hershey won last year’s AHL title on a Game 7 overtime at Acrisure Arena back in the southern California desert. But no one can argue against the excellence of the AHL’s 32nd franchise in just two seasons: Two Western Conference championships and six wins in two Cup finals that were well-played and intense. Let’s not forget only two AHL teams got this far both last season and this hockey year.

“I think this group and this team, the way we played all year and battled all year and come together, deserved to win a championship, and when you come up short like we did, it’s just, I can’t say it any other way, it’s just painful,” said Firebirds head coach Dan Bylsma, who now relocates to Seattle to become the Kraken’s head coach. "I think we stepped into tonight’s game knowing that it’s never going to be the same again. And that goes for some of the players, and that goes for me, and that’s maybe why it hurts so much that we didn’t capitalize on the opportunity.”

Early Strike from Road Team

Coachella Valley struck first Monday, just 1:38 into Game 6 of the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Final. But defending champ Hershey answered less than five minutes later, then scored a second-straight last-minute goal in the first period (this one with 36 seconds left) to take a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.

Knowing a third consecutive Hershey goal could very well prompt the league’s best defensive team to go into clog-the-neutral zone/prevent dangerous chances mode, Firebirds veteran forward Marian Studenic scored the equalizer to make it 2-2 off a skillful feed from NHL-tested forward Devin Shore. Studenic scored his fourth goal of the postseason (two of them breakaways) with a quick release that didn’t allow Hershey’s Shepard to be fully set.

Winterton Shines Monday and All Series

In the must-win Game 6 with Hershey fans dreaming at puck drop about back-to-back Calder Cup titles, Firebirds rookie Ryan Winterton had other aspirations Monday night. The Kraken’s 2021 third-round draft choice scored his fifth goal of this championship series just 1:38 into the contest. Linemates Cameron Hughes earned the primary assist (his 14^th in 18 postseason games), and fellow AHL rookie Shane Wright notched his seventh helper of the playoffs (and later his eighth and ninth).

With the score knotted at 2-2 in the second period, Winterton struck again to make it half-dozen scores in six games of this heavyweight AHL playoff bout plus, vitally, a 3-2 lead. The play was even more encouraging given the fearless net-front work by both the aforementioned linemate Wright and Winterton. Fellow linemate Cameron Hughes started the scoring sequence with a pass into the high slot, where Wright fired a first shot that Hershey goalie Hunter Shepard stopped but not controlling. In the process, Wright crashed the net, requiring a Hershey defender to ride him out of the crease.

Enter Winterton who flashed yet more of his NHL-caliber hands-eyes stickwork while showing no fear of a defender’s physically blanketing him, seizing the loose rebound and flicking the puck past a scrambling Shepard. Winterton scored 22 goals for Coachella Valley during the regular season, one shy of a 30-goal composite season.

Game 6 Comes Down to Trading Goals in Third Period, Then OT

Problem is, Hershey’s Pierrick Dube was a triple goal scorer himself Monday, much to the high-volume glee of the local central Pennsylvania faithful. Dube scored an equalizer to make 1-1 and then marred the Firebirds' second-period momentum by returning the score to even at three goals apiece going into the second intermission. The second period was much tighter than the opening 20 minutes, with Coachella Valley managing just two more shots on goal after Winterton’s second goal (five overall in the middle frame), while Hershey posted just six SOG in the period.

The best scoring chance of the first five minutes came yet again from Winterton on a hard slapper from the right faceoff circle in the Hershey zone, handcuffing Shepard just a bit, leaving a rebound attempt for (yet again) Wright that Shepard smothered. Hershey’s best early opportunity came on a power play when Cameron Hughes was whistled off for high-sticking, but the Firebirds penalty killers (including Winterton) snuffed out the home-squad man advantage.

“We felt like as a group, if we kept playing and kept playing, it was going to turn our way,” said Bylsma during his post-game press conference. “Going down by a goal with 11 minutes left, our guys were still all positive. We're going to get it. And when Cale gets that goal late in the game to tie it up, it just felt inevitable that the next one was going to come as well. And then they get the dagger early in overtime.”

Missing Poturalski

There were no excuses offered by Firebirds/Kraken coach Dan Byslma nor any of his players for not finishing the mission of winning it all in Bylsma’s last hurrah for the southern California franchise, but Western Conference champions certainly missed veteran center and two-time Calder Cup champion Andrew Poturalski in the title round against Hershey. In 13 postseason games (one of the greatly shortened when he suffered the first-period injury in Game 1 of this Cup final), Poturalski had notched two goals and, perhaps more importantly, eight assists and double that in generating quality scoring chances for teammates.

Kraken 2021 Draft Class: Delivering on the Potential

Winterton is one of four 2021 draft choices who have impressed throughout the AHL regular season and followed with solid to spectacular playoff performances. Second-rounder and 35^th overall pick in 2021 Ryker Evans (who played 36 games with Kraken as well) has been a plus-performer in all zones during the postseason, while fellow defenseman and 2021 fourth-rounder Ville Ottavainen has been a force on the blue in a top-three pairs role.

Jacob Melanson, the Kraken’s 2021 fifth-round pick, has proved a nightly physical presence in the CVF lineup (per Bylsma) since returning post-injury at midseason and has chipped in two goals and four assists as a fourth-liner. Add first-rounder Matty Beniers and that adds up to five promising and already NHL-productive picks.

Wright Stuff from 2002

Then there’s Shane Wright, who has grown his game significantly by all accounts from Kraken veterans during his April NHL call-up to once and future coach Dan Bylsma to Seattle GM Ron Francis, who offered at his end-of-NHL-season press conference that he saw no reason why Wright would be on the 2024-25 opening night Kraken roster. Wright, who missed six games with a lower-body injury, has two goals and six assists in the six games against Hershey.

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