AHL Playoffs Round 3: Firebirds vs. Reign SERIES PREVIEW

The Need to Knows

The Places: Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, CA and Toyota Center in Ontario, CA
The Affiliates: Seattle Kraken and Los Angeles Kings
Places to Watch: AHLtv, Locally on KESQ News Channel 3
Place to Listen: KDGL 106.9 The Eagle

Know Your Enemy

Erik Portillo, their man in net, currently leads the playoffs in SV%, with a 0.956 SV% in a mere 5 games.
Their leading scorer is Tyler Madden, with 4 goals and 6 points in 5 games. That’s good for 9th overall in the league right now.
The Reign have a stunning 8 players with 4 or more points these playoffs! Madden obviously, but Taylor Ward, Joe Hicketts, Charles Hudon, Akil Thomas, TJ Tynan, and Brandt Clarke are all bringing a lot of firepower to bear against their foes.
The Reign have yet to lose a game in these playoffs; having swept the Abbotsford Canucks and the Bakersfield Condors.

Series Preview

Alright, so after beating a team that went undefeated in the previous round off of some stellar goaltending and deep scoring threat, the Coachella Valley Firebirds will pluck up courage, gather their strength and…

Play a team that went undefeated in the previous round off of some stellar goaltending and deep scoring threat. At least they have experience on the matter.

Ontario is a good team this year. The Inland Empire’s team made a personal mission to get back to controlling the Pacific, and this playoffs they’ve made good on that by absolutely blasting Bakersfield and Abbotsford; only surrendering 2 goals or more in a single game so far. Thanks to some real strong depth and a world class goalie, the Reign are poised to be the single biggest challenge they face in this Division Final…But they can do it. The Reign did best them in the regular season, but they were always extremely close. Further, we have plenty more game footage to know a good portion of their game is predicated on making sure Erik Portillo’s net front is clean and clear, and if they can break that stalwart defense down…

…There’s a win in here. They just have to claw it out, kicking and screaming.

X-Factors heading into Game 1

Attack the net and solve Portillo early

Erik Portillo could be the deciding factor for the Firebirds on whether or not they get to go compete for a Western Conference Championship. You’ve already seen his statline; he’s been on another planet of quality since the start of the playoffs. The Reign in general play a lot like the 2010’s Kings in that they only rarely surrender a lot of goals, so getting to Portillo and forcing him to work for saves early will be a big deciding factor in how this series goes.

Shut down Tyler Madden

While the Reign are deep, it’s hard not to point out a lot of their strength on offense comes from Madden playing out of his mind in these AHL playoffs. The Firebirds need to shut this dynamic forward down if they ever want a chance to beat the Reign and not just chase them.

Stay out of the Box

The Reign’s power play isn’t exactly great, but thanks to some…shenanigans in the Calgary series, the Firebirds PK hasn’t exactly been stellar, and Refs have long memories. Giving this team that jealously hordes goals-against like a dragon any sort of chance thanks to a screw up on Coachella’s part is a fool’s errand. Ryker Evans, I am explicitly asking you to stop making a once-per-game trip to the box.

MORE YOUTH SCORING

I’m glad Shane and Ryker have been getting on the scoresheet, but I need more. So far the vets of the AHL team have carried the scoring, and while that’s all well and good, having those young boys get their first AHL playoff goal will go a long way towards making this particularly difficult series more tolerable.

Series Schedule

The series begins in Coachella Valley on Wednesday, with puck drop at 7pm PT

Game 1: May 15th, Ontario @ CV, 7pm PT
Game 2: May 17th, Ontario @ CV, 7pm PT
Game 3: May 19th, CV @ Ontario, 7pm PT
Game 4: May 24th, CV @ Ontario, 7pm PT
Game 5: May 26th, Ontario @ CV, 3pm PT

As per usual, we’ll have our combined Previews/Gamethreads (though they will be scheduled because I am travelling next week), so keep an eye out for that!

Go Firebirds!