Coachella Valley Firebirds fall, 2-1, to San Diego Gulls in overtime
The Coachella Valley Firebirds have successfully found ways to win low-scoring games recently, but on Friday the offense sputtered and they came up on the wrong end of one of those games in a 2-1 road loss to the San Diego Gulls at Pechanga Arena.
The Firebirds have not been shut out this season, their first in the American Hockey League, but they've come awfully close multiple times over the last two weeks.
Coachella Valley (30-7-4-1) scored just twice on Feb. 3 against the Gulls at Acrisure Arena, with the game-winning goal coming in the final moments. The Firebirds also scored twice in a road loss to the Iowa Wild on Jan. 28, which snapped a six-game winning streak and was only the team's second loss in its last 15 games.
After scoring 145 goals (3.8 per game) in their first 38 games, the Firebirds have now scored just nine (2.25) in their last four games. They've gone 2-2 over that stretch and have fallen out of first place in the AHL's Western Conference.
On Friday, forward Kole Lind scored the lone goal of the game for the Firebirds. Lind’s powerplay tally came at the 2:47 mark of the third period. Jimmy Schuldt moved the puck to Brogan Rafferty against the left-wing boards. Rafferty slid a pass to Lind, ripping a shot over the left shoulder of Lukas Dostal and into the back of the net for his 17th goal of the season.
San Diego tied the game just 1:16 later thanks to a Pavol Regenda rebound that hit Joey Daccord’s left pad. The assists belonged to Glenn Gawdin and Luka Profaca.
Rocco Grimaldi later scored the game winning goal for the Gulls just 24 seconds into overtime. Grimaldi banked the puck off Firebirds goaltender Joey Daccord to win the game for San Diego.
Next game
Wednesday: The Firebirds hit the ice again on Feb. 15 versus the Tucson Roadrunners at 7 p.m. inside Acrisure Arena.
Coachella Valley will then travel to Ontario to face the Regin on Feb. 17 before returning home for games on Feb. 18 and 20 versus the Bakersfield Condors and the Reign.
Andrew John covers sports in the Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella Valley Firebirds fall to San Diego Gulls in overtime
