There was a crowd of 8,198 inside Acrisure Arena on Monday. By the time Ryker Evans scored the game-winning goal just five minutes before midnight, only a couple hundred were still on hand to see it.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds’ 3-2 triple-overtime win over the Calgary Wranglers in Game 3 of their Calder Cup Playoffs series was one to remember. It was the longest game in the arena’s brief history, and the longest this year in the American Hockey League.
The first period puck drop was at 7:09 p.m. The final goal was scored at 11:55 p.m. By the end, players were moving more slowly and having trouble getting shots on goal.
But Evans, a rookie defenseman from Calgary, managed to find a clean look at the net from 20 feet out, and he one-timed it past Wranglers’ goaltender Dustin Wolf.
After playing almost two full games, these two teams must now prepare to return to Acrisure Arena for Game 4 on Wednesday. The Firebirds hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series and could end the top-seeded Wranglers’ season.
Fortunately for the Firebirds, some reinforcements could be on the way.
With Coachella Valley’s NHL affiliate, the Seattle Kraken, losing Game 7 of its Stanley Cup Playoffs series Monday in Dallas, the Firebirds could have forwards Tye Kartye and Jesper Frödén back for Wednesday’s game. The two combined for 55 goals and 54 assists this season before being recalled by the Kraken and playing a role in Seattle’s postseason run.
Monday’s game marked the return of some other reinforcements. AHL all-star Andrew Poturalski returned tom the ice for his first action since Jan. 26. Poturalski missed the last four months following surgery on his left leg.
The goals
1-0, Wranglers: Adam Klapka scored first, on a power play, with his deflected shot finding its way into the net at the 8:25 mark in the first period. The shot was deflected in front of the cage but spun over the shoulder over the right shoulder of Firebirds goaltender Joey Daccord to give Calgary the early lead.
2-0: Jakob Pelletier added a second first-period goal for the Wranglers at the 15:23 mark. The goal came on one of Calgary’s 15 shots in the period.
2-1: Gustav Olofsson cut the deficit with the Firebirds’ first goal of the game at the 5:28 mark of the second period. Alexander True dished the puck to Max McCormick, and McCormick found Olofsson wide open about 25 feet out. Olofsson one-timed it past Dustin Wolf.
2-2: McCormick tied the game with a goal at the 2:59 mark in the third. Ryker Evans and Cameron Hughes assisted on the play.
3-2: Evans’ goal was just his eighth of the season and his second in the postseason. McCormick and Kole Lind assisted on the play.
Firebirds’ player of the game
Evans scored the game-winning goal but the nod goes to Daccord, who recorded a career-high 60 saves in the win. Daccord didn’t allow a single goal in the final two periods of regulation and in nearly three periods of overtime.
Ice nuggets
Melanson makes debut: Jacob Melanson, a 20-year-old forward who was drafted by the Seattle Kraken in the fifth round in 2021, made his Firebirds and AHL debut Monday.
Melanson, a 6-foot-1 forward from Nova Scotia, spent the season with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan and the Sherbrooke Phoenix of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, where he scored 50 goals and recorded 49 assists in 59 games.
Andrew John covers then Firebirds for The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected]