PALM DESERT, Calif. (KESQ) \u2013\u00a0The Coachella Valley Firebirds survived a must-win game Saturday, defeating the Bakersfield Condors 5-4. The Firebirds win pushes this best-of-three series to Game 3 on Sunday at Acrisure Arena. <\/p>\n
It’s safe to say the Firebirds made a lot of changes between Thursday’s 6-1 loss in Bakersfield and Saturday’s win. In Game 1, Coachella Valley struggled to defend against Bakersfield and couldn’t get their pucks to land.<\/p>\n
Saturday was a different story. The Firebirds came in blazing, especially in the first period. Eduard Sale buried the first goal for the Firebirds at 10:10 for 1-0. In the second period, Jagger Firkus came in to extend the lead to 2-0 at 2:34. <\/p>\n
“Our guys came with some passion,” head coach Derek Laxdal said. “They played, they knew what was on the line and it’s elimination game. And I love the, the intensity, the energy of our group.”<\/p>\n
The Condors were able to make it 2-1, as they continued to battle to eliminate the Firebirds. At 14:20 in the second, J.R. Avon made a clean pass to Mitchell Stephens, who was in perfect position to net the puck. Stephens took Coachella Valley up 3-1. <\/p>\n
Later into the second and third period the game ramped up, especially as the Condors made it 3-2. Oscar Fisker M\u00f8lgaard came in for a necessary goal in the third at 6:21 for 4-2, but Bakersfield tied the game with less than 10 minutes remaining. <\/p>\n
On the brink of elimination and overtime, Fisker M\u00f8lgaard came in at 16:50 to bury the game-winning goal for the Firebirds. Coachella Valley defeated the Bakersfield Condors 5-4. <\/p>\n
“I really thought the guys bought into playing good, solid playoff hockey,” Laxdal said. “We got a taste of tonight. So again, we got to rinse and repeat in short term memory and get back out for it again tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
The two teams continue their make or break series Sunday at Acrisure Arena for Game 3. The winner will advance in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing coverage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALM DESERT, Calif. (KESQ) \u2013\u00a0The Coachella Valley Firebirds survived a must-win game Saturday, defeating the Bakersfield Condors 5-4.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-287324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}