Coachella Valley’s Mitchell Stephens scored two minutes into the third overtime Tuesday, spoiling a dramatic comeback bid by the Wranglers
Coachella Valley’s Mitchell Stephens scored two minutes into the third overtime Tuesday, spoiling a dramatic comeback bid by the Wranglers
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The Calgary Flames earned a reputation this season for their resilience and never-quit attitude.
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The AHL’s Wranglers showed those same traits in their playoff opener, although they ultimately wound up on the wrong end of a triple-overtime thriller.
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The Flames’ farm-clubbers erased a three-goal deficit in Tuesday’s third period at Acrisure Arena in the Palm Springs area. They’d played 42 minutes of sudden-death before Mitchell Stephens scored the winner for the hosts, boosting the Coachella Valley Firebirds to a 4-3 OT triumph in Game 1 of their first-round series. Up to that point, Waltteri Ignatjew had racked up 46 saves in the visiting crease.
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Because this is a best-of-three set, the Wranglers will be facing elimination Saturday in Game 2.
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With his deflection goal early in the third overtime period, Stephens spoiled a dramatic comeback by the Wranglers, who’d trailed by three with just over 13 minutes remaining in regulation.
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Dryden Hunt sparked his squad with a shot through traffic, and Lucas Ciona continued to whittle away at the deficit when he buried a close-range re-direct.
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With only seven seconds left on the clock and Ignatjew pulled for an extra attacker, Rory Kerins notched the tying tally on a sweet feed by Martin Frk, who collected a pair of assists Tuesday. Defence prospect Hunter Brzustewicz showed impressive poise as he manned the blue-line in the final moments.
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The Wranglers opened their Calder Cup quest without a hat-trick of potential difference-makers in starting netminder Devin Cooley, shutdown defenceman Ilya Solovyov and towering right-winger Adam Klapka.
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Team officials are always tight-lipped around playoff time, so the update was simply that Cooley and Solovyov were “not available” for Game 1. Klapka, who scored six goals for the Flames during their wild-card chase, was injured in the season finale with the NHL club and while he’d hoped to be medically cleared to join the farm team, his name has yet to pop up on the minor-league roster.
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