Firebirds Play 'Must-Win' Game Sunday Afternoon

While the Kraken look forward to Game 4 at Climate Pledge Arena on Monday, another building block of establishing a winning culture for the franchise is success at the American Hockey League level. So far, so impressive on that note as the inaugural-year AHL Coachella Valley Firebirds finished with the second-best regular-season record in the league and embark on their own playoff series Wednesday in pursuit of the league's Calder Cup.
The Firebirds are hosting Pacific Division rival Tucson in a first-round best-of-three series with all games at Acrisure Arena. Coachella Valley scored the first five goals of Wednesday's Game 1 and leaned on goalie Joey Daccord's 45 saves to secure a 5-1 win and go up 1-0 in the series.

The Firebirds fell behind by three goals through one period in Game 2 on Friday but showed mettle battling back with power-play goals from Jimmy Schuldt and AHL Rookie of The Year, Tye Kartye in the second and third period.
Coachella Valley would pull within one in the late stages with a goal by Jeremy McKenna at the 17:23 mark to make it 4-3 but couldn't beat NHL-tested netminder, Ivan Prosvetov to tie the game.
The third and final game of the series is Sunday at 3:00 pm. A Firebirds win sets up a Round 2 matchup with Colorado Avalanche AHL affiliate, Colorado Eagles.
Coachella Valley finished the season with 103 standings points (48-17-5-2) but missed out on a first-round bye by three points with division-rival Calgary, tops in both the league and conference. The Firebirds accumulated more points than the other three division winners.
The Firebirds roster is stocked with a good number of veteran players who are proven in the AHL plus NHL-tested by design. With just two Kraken draft classes, Kraken GM Ron Francis and Coachella Valley hockey operations leader Troy Bodie needed to fill out the roster with AHL and ECHL players.
Only 2021 second-round Ryker Evans played a full season for Coachella Valley, leading all rookie defensemen with 44 points (six goals, 38 assists). Other developing players include rookie sensation Tye Kartye, first-player-ever-signed Luke Henman and a pair of free-agent Finns that have greatly impressed head coach Dan Bylsma, Peetro Seppala and Ville Pettman.

Kartye was named AHL Rookie of the Month for March on strength of scoring 11 goals and adding six assists. Signed out of juniors last spring, Kartye finished this season as the top AHL rookie scorer with 28 goals and 29 assists for 57 points and his torrid second half of the season earned a spot on the AHL Rookie All-Star team, along with Evans, who was named to the AHL All-Star Game at midseason along with Firebirds captain Max McCormick.
"Tye represents a great development story," said Bylsma recently. "Undrafted, unheralded, he has done nothing but come to training camp, find out what he needs to work on, and put in the work on and off the ice. Tye is consistently working in practice on the details and habits of his game. The results are evident in his play."
One more bonus for developing younger players under Bylsma with an eye toward competing for Kraken roster spots at next fall's training camp. After finishing his major juniors season (plus time with the Kraken, a conditioning stint for the Firebirds and a World Juniors gold medal), center Shane Wright will get his share of shifts in the AHL playoffs.
The aforementioned Max McCormick led the Firebirds with 67 points (28 goals, 39 assists) while Kole Lind scored a team-high 30 goals. AHL veteran defenseman Brogan Rafferty topped CVF with 42 assists during the regular season. Fans can expect postseason production from this trio, along with forward Alexander True.
Despite a losing record, Tucson does boast AHL scoring champion, forward Michael Carcone, who notched 31 goals and 54 assists for 85 points. Carcone, 27, has played nearly 400 AHL games going into Wednesday.
Goalie Joey Daccord posted another outstanding AHL season as part of the Kraken organization, finishing the year with 26 wins, third in the league and likely higher if hadn't been recalled by the Kraken during the season. Daccord finished with a .909 save percentage and 2.38 goals-against average. The return of veteran defenseman Gustav Olofsson from long-term injury projects to shore up the team's defense corps.