Admirals Sink Firebirds 7-2, Calder Cup Final Return On Hold

The Coachella Valley Firebirds and Hershey Bears on Thursday may have been looking ahead to a Calder Cup Final rematch, rather than completing the business at hand.

The AHL affiliates of the Seattle Kraken and Washington Capitals will have to wait at least until the weekend to secure conference titles. Of most interest to Kraken fans, the Milwaukee Admirals stayed alive with a 7-2 victory at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

The loss snaps the Firebirds nine game playoff winning streak, three short of the AHL record set by Hershey in 1988.

Coachella still leads the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals 3-1, with another chance to advance in Game 5 Saturday night in Milwaukee.

Similarly, the Bears lead the Eastern Conference Finals 3-1 despite a Thursday 3-2 loss to the Cleveland Monsters. The Bears can return to defend their 2023 Calder Cup with a win Saturday in Cleveland. Last year, Hershey defeated Coachella Valley in a seven game Final.

How Admirals Stayed Alive In WCF Game 4

1st Period

For the first time in the series, Coachella Valley gave up the opening goal, Wade Allison giving the home team a 1-0 advantage at 7:26.

Four minutes later, the Firebirds caught a break to tie the game. Defenseman Connor Carrick's centering pass, looking for Devin Shore at the doorstep was (im)perfectly deflected by the stick of Admirals  captain Kevin Gravel into his own net.

Milwaukee took another short-lived lead when the Firebirds fumbled a clearing attempt. Joakim Kammel snapped one from between the circles past netminder Chris Driedger at 17:04.

This time Coachella's response took 78 seconds. Speed kills; off the rush, Cameron Hughes fed a breaking Logan Morrison for the 2-2 equalizer.

2nd Period

Driedger made his two best saves so far while the Firebirds were defending 6-on-5 during a delayed penalty. The goalie repelled testers from Milwaukee's Fedor Svechkov and Ryan Ufko.

But Svechkov would capitalize on Jacob Melanson's interference penalty for a 3-2 lead at 12:44.

The power play goal snapped the Firebirds perfect 11-for-11 penalty kill in the series, and represented the first time Milwaukee had scored more than twice in a game.

Coachella's PK did dispose of a later Gustav Olafsson trip, but the visitors also failed on their one power play opportunity.

The Admirals Zach L’Heureux, a Nashville Predators 1st round draft pick, stuck in the dagger at 19:17.

3rd Period

Neither team was able to convert on early-period power plays.

Driedger stopped a Phil Tomasino breakaway, but CV could never establish defensive coverage. Tomasino eventually shoveled his 5th goal of the playoffs into a virtually open net for a 5-2 Milwaukee lead at 13:11.

Coachella Valley coach Dan Bylsma, showing some of the aggressive tendencies he'll bring to Seattle next season, pulled his goalie for a 6th attacker with more than five minutes left. In this case, the move resulted only an empty-netter. An even later 5-on-3 goal finalized the Milwaukee victory at 7-2.

Lots of last-minutes rough stuff delayed the final horn.

The Firebirds, needing multiple goals, didn't appear to have their legs. Or the Admirals caused them to look that way. Coachella Valley managed just six 3rd period SOG and were outshot 33-25 for the game,

Puck drop for Game 5 on Saturday is scheduled for just after 4 pm Pacific time.