THREE-GOAL THIRD PERIOD FIREBIRD WIN

THREE-GOAL THIRD PERIOD THRILLER – COMPLETES FIREBIRDS 7-6 COMEBACK WIN – Coachella Valley Stuns Ontario in Front of Sold Out Acrisure Arena Crowd.

PALM DESERT, CA (December 28, 2022) – The Coachella Valley Firebirds (@Firebirds), proud affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken), defeated the Ontario Reign in a 7-6 thriller at Acrisure Arena on Wednesday night. 10,087 were on hand to see the Firebirds come back from two goals down in the third period. Andrew Poturalski scored for the Firebirds with 1:09 left to secure Coachella Valley’s 18th win of the season.

The Reign netted the first two goals of the game, as Austin Wagner and Samuel Fagemo each scored in the first 3:42 of the period. Carsen Twarynski pulled the Firebirds within one less than a minute later after a pass from Ville Petman on an odd-man rush found Twarynski for his sixth of the season. Ontario answered back with an Alex Turcotte powerplay goal to regain the Reign’s two goal lead.

Coachella Valley found themselves on the man-advantage and Kole Lind wristed his 13th goal of the season to make it a one-goal game once again. With 1:31 remaining in the frame, Lias Andersson sought his way behind the Firebirds defense and snapped a shot past Joey Daccord to give Ontario a 4-2 edge heading into the second period.

Ontario extended their lead to 5-2 at 8:13 of the second period thanks to Austin Wagner’s second goal of the game but the Firebirds answered back just :22 later. Cameron Hughes brought the puck in the offensive zone on a 2-on-1 rush and ripped a shot past Cal Petersen for his third goal of the season. Just a short time later, Kole Lind took the puck behind the net and centered a pass to Tye Kartye, who beat Petersen five-hole at 10:42 of the middle frame to make it a 5-4 game. Ontario’s TJ Tynan regained his squad’s two goal lead at 17:24 to give the Reign some insurance heading into the third period. Following this goal, Christopher Gibson replaced Joey Daccord in net for the Firebirds.

The Firebirds went to the penalty kill 4:33 into the third period as Ryker Evans was called for cross-checking. Coachella Valley tallied their fifth shorthanded goal of the season thanks to a Jimmy Schuldt wrist shot just :36 later to pull themselves within one. At 11:29, Kole Lind carried the puck into the offensive zone and threw a pass to Max McCormick across the ice while falling. McCormick powered the puck into the net to tie the game at six.

With 1:09 remaining in regulation, Andrew Poturalski gathered the puck from the right circle towards the side of the Ontario net. Poturalski wrapped around the cage and banked the puck in off of Petersen to put Coachella Valley ahead, 7-6.

The Firebirds held on to defeat the Reign and move to 18-6-3-0 on the season. Coachella Valley finished 1-for-2 on the powerplay and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.

NEXT GAME: Coachella Valley visits the San Jose Barracuda for a pair of games at Tech CU Arena on Friday, December 30th and Saturday, December 31st. Puck drop for both contests is slated for 7:00pm PT.