With Chris Mueller making his season debut as well as news that the Ducks had returned Captain Sam Carrick, winger Daniel Sprong and recent All Star selection Chris Wideman the Gulls looked to have a big bounce back night and end their two game skid.
It wasn’t a great start to the night as the Condors opened the scoring just 24 seconds in on a beautiful passing play that saw both Brendan Guhle and Chris Wideman caught watching the action instead of taking their man. 1-0 Condors.
Things went from bad to worse as just under two minutes later the visitors tallied again after a goal mouth scramble in which all of the Gulls on the ice seemed unwilling or unable to tie up or bodily move the Condors away from Kevin Boyle as they fired shot upon shot on him. 2-0 Condors.
San Diego appeared to wake up somewhat a minute later, thanks to Antoine Morand creating his own chance down low, moving in and out of Bakersfield Condors to get in on net. Daniel Sprong followed that up on the same shift on a similar individual rush and the Gulls continued to have sustained pressure on the Bakersfield net until Justin Kloos got one back after he deflected a point-shot from Hunter Drew past the Condors Stuart Skinner. 2-1.
Hunter Drew seemed to feed off his contribution to the goal as he exerted his dominance in the defensive zone. Pasting three different Condors on one shift. He also made a nice move in the offensive zone, holding at the point with patience and waiting for the right moment to send a shot-pass across but it was blocked.
Josh Mahura was called for holding with just under three minutes left to put San Diego down a man, the Condors had one very good zone entry that had the Gulls penalty killing unit completely out of sorts, forcing Boyle to make a big stop on a cross-ice pass on the rush but after that they were able to prevent Bakersfield from getting any other dangerous chances. Teams skated to the first intermission with the visitors ahead by one and leading in shots 15-9, the shot map indicating that first and foremost San Diego needed to prevent less high danger chances on Boyle. Interestingly it also seemed to show that the Condors appear to be weak on the right side.
A great start to the second period for the Gulls resulted in a Power Play opportunity as Chris Mueller was boarded on the second of back to back shifts in the Condors zone.
The Gulls Power Play had some looks but had it best chance when Antoine Morand – again playing an outstanding game – found Josh Mahura all alone in the slot but the second year defender was stopped by a big save from Skinner.
Both teams traded Power Plays and scoring opportunities for the next few minutes until the steadily growing Gulls momentum culminated in a game-tying score after an absolutely dominant shift from the Moran-Carrick-Sprong line. Highlighted by Carrick regaining the puck twice off of Condors players, Sprong shifting around players and into space before firing a hard shot to place a perfect rebound that Carrick then deposited by Skinner to tie things up 2-2.
Feeding off the home crowd the Gulls showed renewed energy following the goal, with all four lines enjoying a good run of play and generating chances on Skinner until that momentum was temporarily halted by a penalty to Sam Carrick for roughing behind the play.
San Diego killed the penalty with ease and went right back to the attack, once again the Carrick line coming close on two separate chances before the Condors were able to regain a small semblance of control, keeping play on the San Diego side of the ice for the remaining three minutes of the period and getting a late Power Play when Brendan Guhle was called for boarding.
The second period ended with the score tied at two and shots 26-24 for the Condors but the Gulls out-shooting the visitors 15-8 on the period. The shot map showing how many chances they had down low, again mostly on the right side as well as generally keeping the Condors to the perimeter in their own end.
The Gulls began the third period with a good penalty kill but an unfortunate bounce lead to the Condors regaining the lead after a deflected pass was stopped by Boyle but he couldn’t control the rebound and it was slammed by him to make it 3-2 just three and a half minutes in.
San Diego were awarded a Power Play of their own soon after but seemed as uncoordinated as they did earlier in the season. The final 35 seconds of the time with the man advantage slightly salvaged by a good shift from the second unit lead by Antoine Morand.
The Gulls carried momentum after that shift with great chances by Jack Kopacka (again with a glimpse of his game breaking speed) and Alex Dostie but the score remained 3-2.
Time started to wind down in the period and the Gulls desperation did not appear to be climbing to where it should be as the Condors played the clock.
Time wound down and Bakersfield took the game 3-2 with the Gulls closest chance coming in the final twenty seconds when a Chris Wideman shot made it all the way through to the near side of the net but nobody could get to the puck in time to put it home.
A disappointing night after a dismal start but brilliant second period. Hopefully they can play a full sixty minutes in the rematch tomorrow.
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