CALIFORNIA, USA — Editor's note: The above video was from before Game 2.
The Hershey Bears (10-5) once again came up empty handed as the Coachella Valley Firebirds (14-7), led by 33-saves from goaltender Joey Daccord, blanked the Bears for the second straight game to earn a 4-0 win in Game 2 of the Calder Cup Finals on Saturday night at Acrisure Arena. The Firebirds lead 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.
After suffering a 5-0 loss in Game 1 on Thursday, Hershey once again was unable to solve Daccord. The netminder was aided as Hershey hit three goalposts in the first period, but he was unflappable all night to post his third shutout of the playoffs. He became the first goaltender to begin a Calder Cup Finals series with consecutive shutouts since Moe Roberts of the Cleveland Barons in 1939.
The Bears outshot Coachella Valley 15-5 in the the first period, but couldn't strike. All night long, Hershey had a hard time staying out of the penalty box, and in the second period, the Firebirds pounced, scoring four times on 13 shots, including adding a pair of power play goals.
Jesper Froden opened the scoring for the Firebirds at 5:08, scoring from the left circle on the power play for his fourth goal of the playoffs. Cameron Hughes and Alex True assisted on the goal that made it 1-0.
Just over a minute later, Austin Poganski scored his first goal of the playoffs, getting lost in coverage and snapping a shot past Hershey goaltender Hunter Shepard at 6:22, assisted by Shane Wright and Ryker Evans.
Evans then scored on a shot that was deflected and knuckled over Shepard's glove at 11:55, and Hughes scored a coast-to-coast highlight goal, assisted by Daccord, on the power play at 18:37 to make it 4-0 Firebirds.
The third period yielded no goals as Hershey couldn't solve Daccord on 10 shots in the final frame.
Shepard took the loss with 19 saves on 23 shots, and the goaltender stopped a Carsen Twarynski penalty shot at 3:48 of the second period. Coachella Valley went 2-for-9 on the power play while Hershey was 0-for-3. Shots favored the Bears, 33-23.