Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
The Calder Cup Playoffs have a way of delivering some harsh lessons. And the Coachella Valley Firebirds need answers fast.
Just as the San Diego Gulls and Henderson Silver Knights learned in the first two rounds, figuring out the Colorado Eagles will take a top effort. But the Firebirds don’t have much time after a 3-0 home loss in Game 1 of the teams’ best-of-five Pacific Division finals series on Wednesday night. Game 2 is tonight at Acrisure Arena (10 ET, 
).
Offense was not something that the Firebirds had to worry about all season. Their 3.29 goals per game ranked 11th in the league during the regular season, and they scored 26 goals in their first eight playoff contests. Eleven skaters reached double digits in 2025-26, led by Logan Morrison and his 29-goal campaign. Rookie Tyson Jugnauth’s 45 points placed first among AHL first-year blueliners, helping him to take a spot on the AHL All-Rookie Team. Oscar Fisker Mølgaard (6-4-10), Jani Nyman (3-5-8) and Jagger Firkus (3-4-7) led the way in series wins over Bakersfield and Ontario.
But then came Game 1 on Wednesday, and the Eagles smothered the host Firebirds in holding them to just 20 shots on goal. That is not nearly enough against standout goaltender Trent Miner, who earned his fourth shutout in seven playoff starts.
After tonight, it’s off to Colorado for as many as three games at Blue Arena. Yes, the Firebirds’ 22-12-2-0 regular-season road record was the third-best in the Western Conference. They won a deciding Game 5 on the road to knock out the Ontario Reign last round. But having to win three straight in Colorado’s chaotic, smothering environs – their fate if they lose Game 2 – would be an unenviable task.
So the Firebirds they are quite aware of where they stand. They are led by a head coach in Derek Laxdal who can match up with the AHL’s best and is surely in their ear. Laxdal, who won a Calder Cup as a player with the Springfield Indians, has won a Memorial Cup and an ECHL championship as a coach, and he took the Texas Stars to a Game 7 in the classic 2018 Calder Cup Finals.
It’s up to Laxdal and his staff to figure out how to solve a mobile, aggressive, well-structured Eagles team that blankets the entire 200 feet of ice and does so consistently. Their forecheck can frustrate opponents, and their blue line has plenty of heft to it. It’s part of the necessary, if unforgiving, development process that comes with going deep into the Calder Cup Playoffs.
“They play like a veteran team,” Laxdal said. “We have to find a way to play through that with our young group. This is one of those experiences that we talked about.”
Coachella Valley’s top seven scorers in the regular season are all age 23 and younger. Their veteran core includes forward John Hayden and defenseman Gustav Olofsson, who both reached the Finals with the Firebirds in 2023 and 2024.
“I think we were a little tentative to start,” said Hayden of Game 1, “and we know in these five-game series that that can’t happen. I think we’ve been resilient all year, so this is actually something we’re pretty comfortable with.”
Tonight, they must put the lessons that six months of regular-season play and two difficult playoff rounds have already afforded them.
“[We are a] deep group with work ethic,” Hayden put it. “We should be a hard out.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.