2024 Calder Cup Finals: Game 1, Coachella Valley - 4 at Hershey - 3 (6/14/24)

HERSHEY, Pa. - The Coachella Valley Firebirds and Hershey Bears began their battle in the 2024 Calder Cup Finals Friday night at Giant Center, with the Firebirds drawing first blood in a 4-3 win to take a 1-0 series lead.

John Hayden and Ryan Winterton tallied two goals apiece to pace the Firebirds' attack, while Cameron Hughes and Ville Ottavainen added a pair of assists each in the Game 1 win for Coachella Valley. Chris Driedger stopped 16 of the 19 shots he faced.

Joe Snively (goal, assist), Hendrix Lapierre (goal, assist) and Hardy Haman Aktell provided the goals for the Bears in the loss, while Hunter Shepard stopped 19 of the 23 shots that came his way.

GAME STORY

Fresh off a dramatic Game 7 overtime win in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bears were buzzing to open Game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals.

Back from injury, Frank was back on the Bears' top line with Snively and Lapierre - zipping the puck around and generating the game's opening goal off a fortuitous bounce.

Lapierre collected a puck from Jake Massie with speed in the neutral zone, sending the biscuit to the right-wing wall for Frank at the Bears' offensive zone blue line. Frank entered the offensive zone and zipped the puck cross-ice to Snively atop the left-wing circle, and Snively tried to go back to the right-wing but the puck bounced off of Ryker Evans' left leg and trickled into the back of the net past Driedger.

The goal gave Hershey a 1-0 lead just 1:15 into the contest.

Coachella Valley, playing in their first game since last Saturday's Western Conference Finals clinching win in Milwaukee, took a few shifts to find their skating legs but once they shook off the early rust they were skating well and generating chances off the rush.

On the shift following Snively's goal, a strong play by Shane Wright to corral a puck behind the net and send it out in front to Jacob Melanson nearly resulted in a game-tying goal in short succession. Instead, Shepard was able to come up with a timely save to preserve the Bears' early lead.

The Bears got the game's first power play opportunity just under six and a half minutes into the opening frame, but it was the Firebirds capitalizing on a bouncing puck that hopped over Snively's stick at the left point.

Hayden took full advantage, using his speed to convert on the ensuing breakaway to tie up the game at 1-1 with 13:26 left in the first frame.

From there, the Firebirds and Bears settled in to first period filled with fast-paced, end-to-end action.

It wasn't until there was just over six minutes left before the first intermission, that the game provided another goal.

That was when the Firebirds' speed off-the-rush once again came to forefront.

Cameron Hughes got a puck in the left wing, and carried it through the neutral zone with speed - centering a pass for Logan Morrison before Morrison sent the puck across low in the right-wing circle for a quick finish past Shepard by Winterton for his 2nd goal of the postseason, giving the Firebirds a 2-1 lead that they would carry into the middle frame.

Andrew Poturalski seemed to trying to play through an injury, perhaps sustained in the first period when he took a big hit from Dylan McIlrath in the left-wing of the Firebirds offensive zone.

Poturalski missed the start of the second period, with Shane Wright moving up to center the top line alongside Max McCormick and Kole Lind. Poturalski returned briefly and took a shift with the linemates Wright started the game with, but quickly exited after that shift and missed the rest of the game.

Coachella Valley started to take control of the game in the second period, out-shooting Hershey by an 11-4 margin in the stanza and growing their lead.

The Hughes-Morrison-Winterton trio provided another tally, with Winterton finishing off a feed in front for his second goal of the game to give the Firebirds a 3-1 lead near the midway mark of the period after Hughes entered the offensive zone on the left wing and got a puck down low to Ville Ottavainen before Ottavainen got it out to Winterton in the slot.

Hershey was able to get one back shortly after Winterton's second period tally, with Haman Aktell starting a rush up ice and driving to the net on an odd man rush before getting the puck in the slot on a feed from Jimmy Huntintgon and flipping a quick shot past Driedger for his second of the postseason to cut the Bears' deficit to 3-2.

The Firebirds pressured in response, eventually getting their two-goal lead back after an extended shift in the offensive zone ended with Hayden stealing a puck on a backcheck and quickly turning and shooting one past Shepard from inside the left-wing circle to push their lead to 4-2 with 4:49 left before the second intermission.

Coachella Valley got themselves into penalty trouble early in the third period, taking back-to-back penalties in the opening 4:18 of the period, but Driedger and the Firebirds' penalty killers put together more strong play on the ensuing kills - limiting Hershey to just two shots on goal in the opening seven and a half minutes of the third.

Hershey ended up taking four straight penalties of their own shortly after those two power plays, preventing them from staying on the attack.

The Bears killed off all four Firebirds' power plays, but were running out of time to mount a comeback attempt as they got back to even strength there was less than four minutes left to play in regulation.

Then, Coachella Valley was whistled for a penalty - the seventh minor penalty assessed in a span of 15:16 in the final frame - giving the Bears a power play chance late in regulation.

Hershey pulled their goalie and scored on the ensuing 6-on-4 advantage, with Lapierre getting one to go from the right-wing circle off a feed from Snively. Frank added a secondary assist on the play, drawing Hershey within a goal for the final 1:56 of play, but that's ultimately as close as the Bears would get as the Firebirds held on for the 4-3 Game 1 win.

Coachella Valley Firebirds Lineup Notes

Chris Driedger got the start in net for Coachella Valley in Game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals Friday night. Ales Stezka served as Driedger's backup.

Shane Wright returned to the Firebirds' lineup up front, with Tucker Robertson skating as the extra forward and final healthy scratch for Coachella Valley.

Firebirds Scratches: Niklas Kokko, Peetro Seppala, Mitch Reinke, Jani Nyman, Ian McKinnon, Ty Nelson, Lleyton Roed, Tucker Roberstson, Ville Petman and David Goyette

Lines/Pairings:

Max McCormick - Andrew Poturalski - Kole Lind Cameron Hughes - Logan Morrison - Ryan Winterton Marian Studenic - Devin Shore - John Hayden Luke Henman - Shane Wright - Jacob Melanson

Gustav Olofsson - Cale Fleury Ryker Evans - Connor Carrick Jimmy Schuldt - Ville Ottavainen

Chris Driedger (Backup: Ales Stezka)

Hershey Bears Lineup Notes

Hunter Shepard got the start in net for Hershey Wednesday night, while Clay Stevenson remained the Bears' backup goaltender.

Ethen Frank returned to the Bears lineup for Game 1, with Matt Strome sitting as the odd man out up front.

On defense, Vincent Iorio's injury in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals opened the door for Dmitry Osipov to make his 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs debut, appearing in his first game action since April 20th.

Bears Scratches: Garin Bjorklund, Mitch Gibson, Nicky Leivermann, Lucas Johansen (injured), Vincent Iorio (injured), Matthew Phillips, Tyson Empey, Ryan Hofer, Aaron Ness (injured), Kevin O'Neil, Matt Strome and Jon McDonald (injured)

Lines/Pairings

Joe Snively - Hendrix Lapierre - Ethen Frank Alex Limoges - Jimmy Huntington - Pierrick Dube Ivan Miroschnichenko - Garrett Roe - Mike Vecchione Henrik Rybinski - Riley Sutter - Bogdan Trineyev

Hardy Haman Aktell - Dylan McIlrath Jake Massie - Chase Priskie Dmitry Osipov - Logan Day

Hunter Shepard (Backup: Clay Stevenson)

GAME SUMMARY

1st Period

1:15: HER - Snively (1) - Frank, Lapierre 6:21: CV - (PP) Lind, minor (slashing) 6:34: CV - SHG Hayden (8) - unassisted 13:52: CV - Winterton (2) - Morrison, Hughes

2nd Period

9:49: CV - Winterton (3) - Ottavainen, Hughes 10:14: CV - (PP) Evans, minor (roughing) 12:51: HER - Haman Aktell (2) - Huntington, Day 15:11: CV - Hayden (9) - Ottavainen, Schuldt

3rd Period

1:17: CV - (PP) Evans, minor (cross-checking) 4:18: CV - (PP) Melanson, minor (high-sticking) 7:37: HER - (PP) Snively, minor (interference) 10:02: HER - (PP) Aktell, minor (cross-checking) 12:17: HER - (PP) McIlrath, minor (high-sticking) 14:16: HER - (PP) Day, minor (slashing) 16:33: CV - (PP) Melanson, minor (holding) 18:04: HER - PPG Lapierre (5) - Snively, Dube

BOXSCORE

Coachella Valley  2 - 2 - 0 = 4 Hershey Bears   1 - 1 - 1 = 3

Shots

Coachella Valley  9 - 11 - 3 = 23 Hershey Bears   10 - 4 - 5 = 19

Goalies

CV: Chris Driedger (16 saves - 19 shots) HER: Hunter Shepard (19 saves - 23 shots)

Power Play

CV: 0-for-4 HER: 1-for-5

Penalty Kill

CV: 4-for-5 HER: 4-for-4