The Coachella Valley Firebirds will try to take a two games to none lead over the Hershey Bears when the Calder Cup Finals resume Sunday in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The Firebirds were 4-3 winners in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series Friday as John Hayden and Ryan Winterton both scored twice
Hayden stole the puck at the blue line, sped into the offensive zone on a breakaway and put a shot past Hunter Shepard for an unassisted shorthanded goal 6 minutes, 34 seconds into the first period, tying the score 1-1.
The Firebirds took a 2-1 lead 13:52 into the first period when Winterton scored off assists by Logan Morrison and Cameron Hughes.
Ville Ottavainen sent a pass from behind the net to Winterton, who put a backhanded shot past Shepard at 9:49 of the second period for his third goal in the last four games after going scoreless in the Firebirds’ first nine playoff games.
Hughes was also credited with an assist.
The Bears cut the deficit to 3-2 at 12:51 of the second period when Hardy Haman Aktell redirected a pass from Jimmy Huntington.
The Firebirds regained a two-goal lead when Hayden scored from the left faceoff circle at 15:11 of the second period off assists by Otntavainen and Jimmy Schuldt.
Firebirds right wing Jacob Melanson was called for holding with 3:27 to play and Hershey coach Todd Nelson pulled Shepard 21 seconds later to give the Bears six skaters to the Firebirds’ four. Hendrix Lapierre scored a power-play goal with 1:56 left cutting the lead to 4-3.
Hershey played the final 1:42 with six skaters to the Firebirds’ five, but Lapierre took its only shot during the span, which Chris Driedger stopped with 22 seconds remaining to preserve the lead.
The Bears opened the scoring 75 seconds into the game when Joe Snively’s centering pass went off a skate of Firebirds’ defenseman Ryker Evans and past Driedger.
The Firebirds led 23-19 in shots, including an 11-4 advantage in the second period.
The Firebirds killed four of five short-handed situations and were scoreless in four power-play opportunities in front of a crowd announced at 10,154 at Giant Center, where the Firebirds lost all three of their games in last year’s Calder Cup Finals.
Driedger made 16 saves. Shepard, who won the Aldége “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the league’s best goaltender after winning the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the MVP of last season’s playoffs, made 19.
The Firebirds, the Seattle Kraken’s American Hockey League affiliate, were playing for the first time since last Saturday, when they wrapped up the Western Conference Finals with a 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals to win the series, four games to one.
Hershey, the Washington Capitals’ AHL affiliate, advanced to the finals with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Cleveland Monsters Wednesday at Giant Center in to win the Eastern Conference Finals, four games to three. The Bears won the first three games of the best-of-seven series, then lost the next three.
The series is a rematch of last year’s finals, which Hershey won four games to three on Mike Vecchione’s overtime goal in Game 7 at Acrisure Arena
The series matches the teams with the AHL’s best regular-season records.
The Bears had a league-best 53-14-0-5 record for 111 points. Their .771 points percentage was the second-best in the AHL’s 88-season history and their 53 victories the most in a 72-game season.
The Firebirds were 46-15-6-5 for 103 points.