Firebirds fall to Canucks, will begin postseason Tuesday at home

Though the Coachella Valley Firebirds had already secured a fourth-place finish in the American Hockey League’s Pacific Division earlier in the day, Fridays game was far from meaningless.

With the Calder Cup Playoffs starting next week, Friday’s game against the Abbotsford Canucks was a chance to continue building momentum for the postseason.

But it was the Canucks who grabbed the momentum, scoring a pair of goals within 14 seconds to break a tie late in the third period to claim a 4-1 win over the Firebirds inside Acrisure Arena.

The Firebirds will play their regular season finale Saturday in San Diego before opening the playoffs with a best-of-3 series at home on Tuesday against either the San Jose Barracuda or the Calgary Wranglers. Game 2 will be April 26, also at home. A potential Game 3 would be at home on April 27.

San Jose and Calgary will play each other on Sunday, with the winner earning fifth place in the division and a first round matchup with the Firebirds.

Max Sasson scored first for the Canucks on Friday, before Firebirds forward Jacob Melanson tied the game with a goal in the second period.

But with the game tied in the third, Linus Karlsson and Danila Klimovich scored consecutive goals within seconds of each other to put the game to bed. Sasson then scored an empty net goal with under a minute to play in the game.

The loss marked the first time in 10 starts that Firebirds netminder Nikke Kokko allowed more than two goals. The rookie from Finland finished the game with 22 saves.

Coachella Valley was 0-for-2 on the power play and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill in the game.

Andrew John covers the Firebirds for The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Firebirds fall to Canucks, will begin postseason Tuesday at home