Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
“It does feel similar.”
Coachella Valley Firebirds goaltender Chris Driedger said that in a post-game press conference on Thursday after a 4-0 win over San Jose on Thursday evening, his second consecutive shutout.
The victory moved the first-place Firebirds to 8-0-1-1 in their previous 10 games.
Last season, Driedger joined Coachella Valley after completing his rehabilitation from a torn ACL suffered while representing Canada at the 2022 IIHF World Championship. He played 14 regular-season games before backing up Joey Daccord during the Firebirds’ run to the Calder Cup Finals.
Daccord’s performance last spring earned him a promotion to the parent Seattle Kraken, one of several roster changes the Firebirds underwent during the offseason. Tye Kartye, Jesper Froden, Alexander True and Brogan Rafferty all were among the departures from a club that finished second overall during the 2022-23 regular season.
But Coachella Valley still looked good on paper. Max McCormick, Kole Lind, Cameron Hughes, Andrew Poturalski, Shane Wright and Ryker Evans were all still with the organization. Defensemen Connor Carrick and Cale Fleury and forwards Marian Studenic and Devin Shore arrived as free agents with proven veteran backgrounds. Rookie forwards Logan Morrison and Ryan Winterton came aboard, and defensemen Ville Ottavainen and goaltender Ales Stezka brought high-level European pro experience.
Putting all of those pieces together takes time. Add in any lingering effects from a long and demanding postseason, and the result was a rather modest 9-7-0-0 record at the end of November.
“There was a bit of a break-in period,” Driedger said. “I can feel that swagger coming back, and I think that’s a staple of our team. I think that element is there, and that’s what is important for us to win.”
Since Dec. 1, the Firebirds have gone 19-6-4-2 and are in first place in a Pacific Division that sees the top four teams separated by just five points. It’s a run has set them up well for another strong stretch drive to the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Part of that revived swagger comes with having unflappable head coach Dan Bylsma in charge.
“He’s a pro,” Driedger said of the former Stanley Cup champion and Jack Adams Award recipient. “He’s overqualified for what he’s doing. Just an excellent leader of our team. Super-detailed but keeps things fun. Everyone has fun coming to the rink.”
After hosting Henderson today, the Firebirds – who are 16-4-2-0 on the road – play six of their next seven games away from home. These final two months of the season will not be easy, but they have put themselves in a strong position to chase the Calder Cup once again. That swagger, after all, is back.
“I think early on, there was some searching for how good we could be and what kind of team we’re going to be,” Bylsma said Thursday. “We’ve finally got ourselves where we think we should be.”
Coming out of the all-star break last weekend, the Toronto Marlies dealt the visiting Laval Rocket a 6-1 defeat. But that was followed by a 7-1 loss to Laval and a 6-1 setback to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, with a difficult stretch looming.
So far, the Marlies have passed the test.
On Friday night, Toronto went into Belleville to face the Senators, one of a cluster of teams battling with the Marlies for positioning in the North Division. Toronto had lost five of its first seven meetings with the Sens this season and trailed Friday’s game 2-0, but battled back with three goals late in the second period and a Kieffer Bellows game-winner midway through the third, holding firm for a clean 4-3 regulation victory.
Up next were the league-leading Hershey Bears yesterday at Coca-Cola Coliseum, where the well-rested Bears had arrived a full two days early and had plenty of time to settle in while the Marlies were on the road. Facing another 2-0 deficit, Toronto got third-period goals from Joseph Blandisi and Dylan Gambrell against the AHL’s top-ranked defense and pulled out a hard-earned point in an eventual 3-2 overtime loss.
The Marlies are tied with Belleville at 51 points, one point behind third-place Rochester in the North. The Amerks will be in town for a critical showdown at Scotiabank Arena on Monday afternoon (2 ET, NHL Network).
“I’m happy with the point,” Marlies head coach John Gruden told reporters after Saturday’s game. “When you battle back like that, it shows some character within our locker room.”
Is that a misprint in the AHL standings? A 16-0-0-0 streak? It’s not.
The Milwaukee Admirals’ 4-0 win at Manitoba yesterday tied them with the 1984-85 Baltimore Skipjacks for the fourth-longest winning streak in AHL history. Phil Tomasino and Tye Felhaber scored two goals apiece and AHL All-Star Yaroslav Askarov needed just 14 saves as the Admirals posted their fourth consecutive road shutout, tying a league record.
With another win in Monday’s rematch with the Moose, the Admirals would match the 2004-05 Philadelphia Phantoms and the 2018-19 Bakersfield Condors at 17 straight wins. The pro hockey record of 28 consecutive victories is held by the 2011-12 Norfolk Admirals.
Milwaukee has opened up a 14-point lead over the rest of the Central Division, but the Texas Stars and Grand Rapids Griffins are putting up strong fights to keep up some sort of pace. The second-place Stars swept a pair of weekend home games against Iowa, giving them points in five straight games (3-0-1-1), while the third-place Griffins have progressed nicely this season with a 13-2-2-2 record since Christmas, including a current 12-game point streak (8-0-2-2).
TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams has been on the American Hockey League beat for nearly two decades for outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM! Sports, and was most recently the co-host of The Hockey News On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
