Coachella Valley Firebirds Score 3 In Third Period To Win Over Reign

PALM DESERT, CA — In the I-10 Freeway Tournament, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, proud affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Seattle Kraken, defeated the Ontario Reign in a 7-6 thriller at Acrisure Arena on Wednesday night. 10,087 were on hand to see the Firebirds come back from two goals down in the third period. Andrew Poturalski scored for the Firebirds with 1:09 left to secure Coachella Valley’s 18th win of the season.

The Reign netted the first two goals of the game, as both Austin Wagner and Samuel Fagemo scored in the first 3:42 of the period. Carsen Twarynski pulled the Firebirds within one less than a minute later after a pass from Ville Petman on an odd-man rush found Twarynski for his sixth of the season. Ontario answered back with an Alex Turcotte powerplay goal to regain the Reign’s two-goal lead.

"Coachella Valley's Kole Lind wristed his 13th goal of the season to make it a one-goal game once again," a spokesperson for the team wrote in a recent news release. "With 1:31 remaining in the frame, Lias Andersson sought his way behind the Firebirds' defense and snapped a shot past Joey Daccord to give Ontario a 4-2 edge heading into the second period."

Ontario extended their lead to 5-2 at 8:13 of the second period thanks to Austin Wagner’s second goal of the game but the Firebirds answered back just 22 seconds later.

Cameron Hughes brought the puck in the offensive zone on a 2-on-1 rush and ripped a shot past Cal Petersen for his third goal of the season. Just a short time later, Kole Lind took the puck behind the net and centered a pass to Tye Kartye, who beat Petersen five-hole at 10:42 of the middle frame to make it a 5-4 game.

Ontario’s TJ Tynan regained his squad’s two-goal lead at 17:24 to give the Reign some insurance heading into the third period. Following this goal, Christopher Gibson replaced Joey Daccord in the net for the Firebirds.

The Firebirds went to the penalty kill 4:33 into the third period as Ryker Evans was called for cross-checking. Coachella Valley tallied their fifth shorthanded goal of the season thanks to a Jimmy Schuldt wrist shot just 36 seconds later to pull themselves within one.

At 11:29, Kole Lind carried the puck into the offensive zone and threw a pass to Max McCormick across the ice while falling. McCormick powered the puck into the net to tie the game at six.

With 1:09 remaining in regulation, Andrew Poturalski gathered the puck from the right circle toward the side of the Ontario net. Poturalski wrapped around the cage and banked the puck in off of Petersen to put Coachella Valley ahead, 7-6.

The Firebirds ultimately defeated the Reign, moving to 18-6-3-0 on the season.

Coachella Valley finished 1-for-2 on the powerplay and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.

For their next game, the Coachella Valley visits the San Jose Barracuda for a pair of games at Tech CU Arena on Friday, December 30th and Saturday, December 31st. There is a 7 p.m. puck drop for both contests.