Firebirds swamp Wranglers, 7-3

The Coachella Valley Firebirds defeated the Calgary Wranglers on Tuesday Night at the Scotiabank Saddledome by the final score of 7-3. Seven different goal scorers helped the Firebirds tie their franchise record for consecutive games with a point (14) as Coachella Valley now has points in 24 of their last 25 games.

The Firebirds struck three times in the game’s opening period. Ville Ottavainen picked up his 30th point of the year on his seventh goal of the season 5:10 into the game. Ten seconds after Ottavainen’s wrist shot slid through Wranglers’ netminder Connor Murphy, Cameron Hughes roofed a shot under the crossbar to make it 2-0. The two goals in a ten second span is a new franchise record (previous was :14 set this past Saturday vs. Texas).

Max McCormick netted a powerplay goal at 11:22 of the first period to give the Firebirds a 3-0 lead. McCormick’s team-leading 28th goal of the year was assisted by Connor Carrick and Kole Lind. Calgary swapped out goaltenders with Oscar Dansk replacing Murphy after the third Coachella Valley goal.

Luke Henman extended the Firebirds’ lead to 4-0 at 9:49 of the second period. Marian Studenic and Jimmy Schuldt earned the helpers on Henman’s sixth of the season. Calgary responded with two goals in the period’s final ten minutes to make it a 4-2 game heading into the third period.

Shane Wright grabbed his 20th goal of the season, assisted by Devin Shore, just 29 seconds into the third period to make it 5-2. Connor Carrick quickly had the Firebirds up 6-2 as his blast from the blue line came 27 seconds later. Cale Fleury banked a shot off a Calgary defenseman to put Coachella Valley up by five goals at 7:39 of the third period. The Wranglers answered back with a Jordan Oesterle goal with three seconds left in the game.

Chris Driedger made 32 saves to record his 20th win of the season. The Firebirds outshot the Wranglers 36-35.

The win moves Coachella Valley’s record to 39-13-5-4 and gives them points in 24 of their last 25 games. The Firebirds powerplay finished the game 1-for-2 while the penalty kill went 1-for-1.

For the game’s full box score, click HERE.