The Colorado Eagles and Coachella Valley Firebirds bring the Pacific Division final to Loveland tonight (8:05 ET, 
) as the puck dropped in Game 3 at the Blue Arena.
Trent Miner shut out the Firebirds for the first 101 minutes of the series, but Coachella Valley broke out in a big way with four third-period goals to take Game 2 by a 4-0 score Friday night.
JR Avon (7-1-8) scored twice in Game 2, his sixth and seventh goals of the playoffs after a 10-goal regular season. The head coach Derek Laxdal made an in-game fix to remove Avon from the line with Logan Morrison again Jani Nyman.
“Answer them,” said Laxdal. “Thank you very much to our guys. It was a great game. It was back and forth, just a grind. They (the Eagles) are a hockey team. They come at you, they have a lot of skill. Our guys found a way to wait to get the win.”
“They’re a great hockey team,” Avon said. “It’s going to be a low-scoring game so we have to wait for our chance and jump at it.”
Nikke Kokko (6-4, 2.40, .911) made 33 saves to earn his second shutout of the postseason. In his two seasons with the Firebirds, Kokko had more shutouts in 16 playoff games (3) than in 68 regular season games (2).
Miner (6-2, 1.20, .948) finished with 21 stops in Game 2.
“Playoff hockey is tough,” Laxdal said. “It’s 1-1. It’s the best of the three, (now) we play three games in their building. Our goal is to go in there and try to fight to win.” [in Game 3]. It’s a beautiful building, the fans are loud… I know our boys will be fired up.”
Eleven of the 12 best-of-five series in the divisional semifinals and finals of this year’s Calder Cup Playoffs are tied 1-1 after the first two games. Only in the Central Division finals was 2-0, Chicago took the lead over Grand Rapids with a 4-3 overtime win last night.
The Wolves came out on top with a 3-1 draw to pull out the victory, marking the sixth time in the postseason that a team has won a game after trailing by at least two goals. It happened twice Thursday night, when Toronto overcame a 2-0 deficit in Cleveland and Springfield came back 3-0 in Wilkes-Barre.
And Chicago’s Game 2 win also improved road teams to 9-4 in OT games this postseason. Only Springfield (twice) and Henderson (twice) have managed to win in overtime on home ice.
The winners of Game 3 went on to win seven of the eight series in the previous round.
