Power outage short circuits Firebirds' preseason game at Acrisure Arena

Coachella Valley Firebirds fans eager to see the defending Western Conference champions return to their Acrisure Arena home ice will need to wait for the skate just a bit longer.On Friday night, the puck never dropped in the Firebirds' first preseason game as an IID power outage in the area ultimately canceled the contest.

Shortly before 7:40 p.m., arena officials made the official announcement to the fans who remained that the game against the Ontario Reign had been called off when the electricity had not returned.

The preseason opener against the Reign was scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Friday. But after waiting more than 90 minutes, the game was called off.

Firebirds officials announced that individual game ticket buyers will receive a refund at the point of purchase. For Firebirds’ season ticket members, additional information will be available in the coming days.

"I heard that the power might be out at Power Trip as well, so that's a pretty crazy coincidence with what's happening here tonight," said Firebirds fan Sydney Process. "But I don't mind. There will be other games and, if there isn't a game played tonight, more than likely the team will refund us."

A crowd of about 6,000 was anticipated for the game, but some had already left after waiting more than an hour.

"This is how I got into playing hockey myself, coming to the games," said fellow fan Roslyn Crawford. "After Game 7 (last year), I was kinda' sad after that, so I was really excited to see this game, see them play again. But even if they don't play tonight, it's not that big of a deal; there are a lot more games."

The Firebirds are scheduled to host the second of two preseason games at 3 p.m. Sunday against the Henderson Silver Knights.

"Unfortunately, we've got this power situation," said Firebirds executive John Page, SVP of the Oak View Group. "We're working with IID to determine the source and nature of it. They deployed immediately upon the outage. But we firmly believe it's not here, it's not at the arena, but somewhere along their transmission line. We'll hopefully get this resolved sooner than later, get everything back to normal, figure out what happened and then get ready for the game on Sunday."

Page added that protecting players was a top consideration in the cancellation.

"Really, for player safety, we didn't want this to go too long. They'd already gone through their warm-up, and we didn't want them to sit there idly. Heaven forbid, somebody pulls a muscle or gets hurt because they aren't warmed up. For the safety of the players, we want to make sure we err on the side of caution and put them in the best position to be successful."

Ironically, amid Page's comments, power returned to the arena at approximately 7:50 p.m.

"Figures, right?" smiled Page.

With the full complement of lights on at Acrisure, the executive addressed what a loss of one of two preseason games may mean to those working to make the Firebirds' roster.

"Not speaking for the players or the coaches, but it certainly is difficult that those guys don't have that opportunity. So, now, it really boils down to one game for them to showcase their skills and talent," said Page. "Obviously, many of them have been in and around the team for a period of time, the scouts have seen them throughout the course of their tenure, whether in juniors or college or internationally. So they have an idea of what they can do."

Of the team's current roster fluidity -- which saw 14 players returned to the Firebirds from the Seattle Kraken camp in the past two days -- Page acknowledged the moving parts.

"There will be another practice tomorrow. So, the team -- with the cuts and releases from Seattle and assembling the guys who haven't been around -- they'll (coaches and management) figure out who they want to play and who they want to see (on Sunday)," Page said. "Most of the guys returning from Seattle, there's a pretty good idea of their skill level and what they can contribute to the Firebirds."

The regular season begins Friday, Oct. 13 with a 7 p.m. home game against the Bakersfield Condors.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Power outage cancels Firebirds' preseason game at Acrisure Arena