Coachella Valley stumbled in its first outing of the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs, dropping a 4-1 decision to Calgary in Game 1 of their Pacific Division semifinal series at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Friday night.
Game 2 of the best-of-five series is set for Sunday.
In action for the first time since closing out their regular season on Apr. 21, the Firebirds were stymied by Dustin Wolf, who stopped 35 of 36 shots in net for the Wranglers.
Adam Klapka notched a goal and an assist and Mitch McLain scored the tiebreaking goal at 3:16 of the third period to send Calgary to its third straight win to begin the postseason.
Sam Morton and Yan Kuznetsov closed out the scoring with empty-net goals late.
Ryker Evans scored the only goal for Coachella Valley and Chris Driedger stopped 23 of 25 shots.
(Calgary leads series, 1-0)
Game 1 – Fri., May 3 – CALGARY 4, Coachella Valley 1
Game 2 – Sun., May 5 – Coachella Valley at Calgary, 6:00
Game 3 – Wed., May 8 – Calgary at Coachella Valley, 10:00
*Game 4 – Fri., May 10 – Calgary at Coachella Valley, 10:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 12 – Calgary at Coachella Valley, 6:00
*if necessary… All times Eastern