Short-handed goals lift Firebirds to comfortable home win over San Jose
There's nothing more dispiriting to a hockey team than yielding a short-handed goal, except maybe yielding two short-handed goals.
The Coachella Valley Firebirds notched a pair of short-handed goals in the second period to gain separation from the last-place San Jose Barracuda on the way to a comfortable 4-1 win in front of 9,013 at Acrisure Arena on Wednesday night.
The win is just the continuation of a calendar-year-long hot streak for the Firebirds who have been extra sharp in 2024. It took a few months into the season, but at some point around the new year, the team just simply found the swagger they had been missing.
"Early on in the season, I don't think you saw a lot of respect from the other teams when they came in here and we had to establish that again and we had to play a certain way to establish that again," coach Dan Bylsma said. "We're at our best when we're playing with swagger. We're at our best when we're playing aggressive. We're at our best when we're shoving it in other people's faces and that's taken time to establish, but you see it in our guys now and that makes us a good team."
It's easy to have swagger when you're on an extended roll like this. In the 25 games since Jan. 1, the Firebirds are a sizzling 17-3-3-2.
The win kept the Firebirds in first place in the Pacific Division. They entered the game ahead of second-place Colorado by two points and ended the night in the same position as Colorado edged Abbotsford 4-3 in overtime.
While the Firebirds were rested, the Barracuda played a game Tuesday night, losing 8-2 at Ontario. That may have played a role in Wednesday's outcome as the Firebirds just looked a step faster, especially after a first-period power-play goal by Kole Lind.
But it was a pair of second-period short-handed goals that changed the game. Ryan Winterton and Cameron Hughes scored them on back-to-back San Jose power plays to make it 3-0 Firebirds in the second period, a deflating series of events for the Barracuda to be sure.
In both cases, the Firebirds were able to turn their penalty kill into an odd-man rush going the other way. Winterton and Marian Studenic used their speed to force a 2-on-1 breakaway that Winterton cashed in despite a San Jose defender being draped all over him. Hughes' goal was on a clean breakaway and he zinged it into the upper right corner of the cage.
"Sometimes on a penalty kill that can happen if you're on defense and you're coming back toward the middle and a loose puck or a turnover happens, you've got momentum going the other way and they're a little (flat-footed) at the line," Hughes said. "On that one, Jimmy Schuldt stood their guy up pretty well along the wall and the puck came loose and I got the breakaway and thankfully got the goal."
The Firebirds carried the 3-0 lead into the third period. San Jose scored about 25 seconds into the period to make it 3-1, but Hughes picked up his second goal of the night soon after to return the lead to three goals and snuff out any momentum the Barracuda had built.
Goalie Chris Driedger was solid in net, stopping 29 of the 30 shots that came his way.
San Jose has a reputation for being a physical team, and a play midway through the first period seemed to jump-start the Firebirds. It wasn't a goal or an assist, but rather a good old-fashioned physical hit as Schuldt leveled a Barracuda puck-handler with the kind of clean hard hit that gets your teammates fired up.
Seconds after the hit, Schuldt and a Barracuda player got into a fight that was extinguished quickly and both players went to the penalty box. As Schuldt took his seat in the sin bin, his teammates skated over to him to give him some love for the big hit.
Coach Bylsma was asked after the game about the Schuldt hit, and he pursed his lips and nodded his head silently as if playing it back in his mind, and just kept nodding his head with a satisfied look and a gleam in his eye. After a few more seconds basking in the glow of his memory of Schuldt's hit, he finally said "I liked it very much."
The goals
Firebirds 1-0: Kole Lind nets a power play goal that looked like it was drawn up on a whiteboard. Poturalski passed it to Logan Morrison who zipped it across the crease to Lind on the doorstep of the goal for an easy tap-in.
Firebirds 2-0: Gorgeous short-handed goal by Ryan Winterton with a defender draped all over him. Marián Studenič kept the puck alive and Winterton blindly put a stick on it toward the net and it got by San Jose goalie Georgi Romanov.
Firebirds 3-0: Another short-handed goal. This time it's Cameron Hughes taking possession at his own blue line and going coast-to-coast on a breakaway, beating Romanov with a nifty flick.
Firebirds 3-1: San Jose scored less than a minute into the third period when Scott Sabourin had a quick reaction goal past Driedger.
Firebirds 4-1: Hughes picked up his second goal of the night, returning the Firebirds to a three-goal lead when his attempted pass was blocked right back to him and he quickly shot it on goal, crossing up the keeper.
Missing in March
The Firebirds are about to embark on a 12-game March schedule almost entirely played on the road. Due partly to not wanting to coincide with the two-week BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament, the Firebirds only have three home games in March to go with nine road games. March 9, March 20 and March 23 are the only games at Acrisure Arena between now and April. As surprising as it seems, there are only nine home games left in the regular season.
The Firebirds, armed with the best road record in the American Hockey League at 17-4-3-0, are ready for the challenge.
"We know what we've got to do at away barns and that's continue to play Firebirds hockey and everything else will take care of itself," Winterton said.
Lind agreed, adding that his road confidence comes simply from looking at the guys around him in the locker room.
"We know we have a tough stretch of road games here, but we're really good in other team's buildings," he said. "It's tough to say why, exactly, but we go into every game with one of the best rosters in the AHL. So no matter the building, no matter the atmosphere we can kind of push through anything."
What's next
The Firebirds (31-13-5-2) begin that road-heavy March schedule with a pair of games this weekend. Coachella Valley is at Bakersfield on Friday (7 p.m.) and at San Jose on Saturday (6 p.m.).
Shad Powers covers the Firebirds for The Desert Sun. Have a question about the team or the AHL or Acrisure Arena? Shoot him an e-mail at shad.powers@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Short-handed goals lift 1st-place Firebirds to comfy win over San Jose
