Firebirds Playoffs: Round 2 Preview vs. Calgary!

The Need To Knows

The Places: Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, CA & the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
The Affiliates: Seattle Kraken and Calgary Flames
Place to Watch: AHLtv, provided you pay up for it. Locally it will be broadcast

Know Your Enemy

The Wranglers made it to the Semifinals by defeating the Tuscon Roadrunners in two games of the Best-of-3 First Round.
The Wranglers don’t really have a leading goalscorer this playoffs, instead having gotten a goal from six different players over the course of the two games; including tallies from Matt Coronato, Cole Schwindt and William Stromgren.
Their leader in points on the other hand, is the Czech giant himself; Adam Klapka, who has three assists in two games.
Their leader in net was Dustin Wolf, who had a .966 SV% through two games.

Series Preview

The AHL’s first round has come to a close, and the Firebirds, who have been patiently waiting for a foe to emerge, have at long last found their nemesis for this Best of 5 series. This year, Coachella Valley faces the Calgary Wranglers, who are no doubt looking to pay back the ‘Birds for knocking them out of the playoffs last year in an airtight series. The Firebirds have had a good long time to practice and keep themselves limber, but must now prove that this bye hasn’t softened them up.

The Firebirds and the Wranglers met Eight times throughout the regular season, and if we can use those as instructional, then this should be something they make short work of; having a record of 6-2 over them, and having blown them out at least twice in that process. But as we all know…it’s never truly that easy. The playoffs are a different animal, and the Wranglers are humming. Further, they have unrestricted access to Dustin Wolf, someone they only had part-time control of thanks to the big club in Calgary needing his services throughout the year, and Wolf has already showed up big time as a major force through their series with Tuscon.

The ‘Birds will have a hell of a first test for the playoffs, but if they can trust in their talent, and meet Calgary head on, they can take this series.

X-Factors heading into Game 1

Keeping Wolf Honest

Dustin Wolf is a genuinely strong AHL goalie and currently sits as 2nd overall in the playoffs in Save-%. Does that mean he’s invincible? Hardly. Wolf is like many goaltenders in that he’s easier to score on when you get out in front of him, and in the sole game that the Roadrunners scored on him, they made a point of attacking him up in front of him, and it paid dividends; nearly forcing a Game 3. If the Firebirds take that to heart, they can beat him.

Catching the Defense Off-Guard and Early

Calgary got here on the backs of some strong team performances and goaltending. They did not get here on the back of their defense, which allowed plenty of teams near unrestricted access to their net-front throughout the regular season, finishing the year with a negative goal differential. They managed to shut out Tuscon once, but then had to spend a good portion of their time fending off the Roadrunners as they ran roughshod on their backcheck in Game 2. The Firebirds must use their impressive attack to keep Calgary chasing.

Avoid slow starts

A bad habit that the Firebirds picked up over the last few weeks of the season was a propensity to gift the first couple goals of the game to their opponent. They still managed to win a plurality of those games in dramatic comebacks, but it’s one that needs to be exercised and quickly if they want to beat Calgary: lackadaisical effort isn’t going to cut it against a goalie that’s playing out of his gourd and a defense that’s giving plenty of opportunities. It breeds frustration which can snowball into losses. The Firebirds need to take each game they play and start it on time. They may not get the chances the rest of the Division gave them to get back into it.

Well, the young boys (need to) play pretty good puck

The Firebirds got an embarrassment of riches with young boys coming from college and Sweden, and then also an influx of talent from the Kraken themselves. These guys aren’t just trying to help their squad succeed; that’s expected no matter what. Some of these guys are doing extended try outs for the Kraken starting in Calgary and going for however much effort they put in. Wright, Evans, Winterton, Morrison, Nyman, Roed…All of ’em are now on the clock to start showing some real gumption; especially since a bare minimum of two or three of them could be on their way to the Deep Blue of Seattle full time come next training camp. They need to be difference makers in this series.

Series Schedule

The series begins on Friday night in Calgary, at 6pm PT.

Game One: May 3rd, Firebirds @ Calgary, 6pm PT
Game Two: May 5th, Firebirds @ Calgary, 3pm PT
Game Three: May 8th, Firebirds vs. Calgary, 7pm PT
Game Four: May 10th, Firebirds vs. Calgary, 7pm PT
Game Five: May 12th, Firebirds vs. Calgary, 3pm PT

We’ll be setting combined preview gamethreads for each game, so please come along and cheer the baby squids as they begin their hunt for greatness!