Anaheim Ducks and Arizona Coyotes put on a show at Acrisure Arena in w…
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For the first time in 102 days there was a hockey game at Acrisure Arena on Sunday, and while it may not have had the importance of Game 7 of the Calder Cup finals, it was historic in its own way.
The NHL’s Arizona Coyotes and Anaheim Ducks faced off in a preseason hockey game, marking the first pro hockey game ever in the Coachella Valley and the first pro teams of any sort to play at Acrisure Arena.
And don’t tell these teams that preseason games don’t matter. This game wound up being a classic as the Ducks scored twice in the final 35 seconds of the game to pull out a stunning reversal and a 5-4 win.
Troy Terry scored with the goalie pulled to tie the game at 4-4 and just 19 seconds later Robert Hagg floated one in through traffic from the blue line to give the Ducks an unlikely win.
A crowd of 7,545 at Acrisure Arena sounded like about 75% Ducks fans and 25% Coyotes fans.
“This was a really nice rink, I’d seen a little bit of it, my brother played in the AHL finals last year so I kind of tuned in, so I’d seen it on live stream before, but it was great to see in person,” said Ducks forward Ryan Strome who scored two goals on Sunday, referencing his brother Matt who was on the Hershey Bears last season. “It was nice to hear the Ducks fans out strong. Lot of jerseys out there so it was good. Didn’t know what to expect, but nice facility here and nice to see the support at a neutral site like that.”
The game was part of the 2023-24 Coachella Valley Firebirds season-ticket package so there were also plenty of Firebirds fans in the house, even without a rooting interest.
And it was a great game for a neutral fan. Nine total goals, a remarkable finish and it was a tense game that even included a brief glove-dropping fist-fight with 3:26 left in the game between Arizona’s Justin Kirkland and Anaheim’s Scott Harrington.
“It was awesome to see NHL franchises come out here to the desert,” said Nathan Garza who is a Firebirds season ticket holder and is a big Anaheim Ducks fan,…
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