Coachella Valley Firebirds suffer rare loss to San Diego in 4-3 shootout

The Coachella Valley Firebirds played their second consecutive shootout game Wednesday night, but with different results this time.

Sasha Pastujov, whose goal late in the third period tied the game for the San Diego Gulls, scored in the fifth round of the shootout to give San Diego a 4-3 home victory over Coachella Valley.

The win was a rare one for the Gulls over the Firebirds, who had entered the game with a 9-1-1-0 record all time against San Diego.

In the shootout, Logan Morrison of Coachella Valley scored in the second round, but that was matched by  Nikita Nesterenko of San Diego. Neither team scored in the third or fourth rounds, and the Firebirds’ Andrew Poturalski was denied in the fifth round before Pastujov’s winning goal against goalie Chris Driedger.

The game ended at 3-3 in regulation, with both teams scoring single goals in each of the three periods. The Firebirds scored the first goal of the night in the first period when Devin Shore deflected a shot by Gustov Olofsson and past San Diego goalie Calle Clang at the 7:48 mark. But the Gulls tied the game just six minutes later on a goal by Andrew Agozzino.

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San Diego grabbed the lead less than two minutes into the second period on Brayden Tracey’s goal for a 2-1 lead. It took almost the entire period for the Firebirds to tie the game, with Ryan Winterton scoring with just 47 seconds left in the second period, with assists going to Ville Ottavainen and Peetro Seppala.

Winterton’s second goal of the night and 17th of the season, stuffing in a rebound in front of the net off a Shane Wright shot, gave the Firebirds a 3-2 lead at the 12:07 mark of the final period. But the Gulls were able to tie the game on a power play goal after Coachella Valley’s Jacob Melanson was called for delay of game. Pastujov scored the unassisted San Diego goal with 4:13 left in regulation.

Coachella Valley finished the night with 41 shots on goal, including three in the five-minute overtime. San Diego had 31 shots on goal, just one in overtime.

The point the Firebirds earn for the shootout loss moves the team to 74 points for the season for a five-point lead over the idle Colorado Eagles in the Pacific Division.