Calder Cup Finals Game 3 PREVIEW/GAMETHREAD

The Need to Knows

• The Time: 7pm PT
• The Place: Acrisure Arena, Palm Desert, CA
• Place to Watch: AHLtv, NHL Network
  • Locally to Seattle; Kraken Iceplex’s bar will have a showing.
  • Locally to Coachella; FOX 11, and The Showroom at the Spotlight Casino will have a showing
• Place to Listen: KDGL 106.9 The Eagle

What happened last game?

The Bears evened the series up on a 5-2 game in which Hunter Shepard basically stole the game for them. Yes, in a 5-2 final score game. It made sense if you watched the game.

Game Notes

So last game didn’t go as planned, but the Firebirds absolutely controlled the game otherwise.

Now…Hershey’s away from their seat of power for the next three games. Given just how good the Coachella Valley Firebirds have been at Acrisure, they now have to take that level of opportunism they got from Game 2 into the next three games. A tall order, and one that the Firebirds will be making personally certain does not happen again.

If there’s anything they can take from last game, it’s that they need to solve Shepard quickly, and get back inside his head like they were for Game 1. He needs to be as uncomfortable as possible. Further, they really need to make sure that they don’t give up the puck as often as they did in the defensive zone like they did in Game 2.

Still, the next three games are sure to be gigantic. If the Firebirds home magic continues…we could be looking at glory. All Coachella has to do is keep the battle up.

LET’S GO FIREBIRDS!