Game 5: San Diego vs Bakersfield Condors – Oct 20

With Luke Gazdic making his season debut playing on the newly refurbished top line alongside Tropp and Carrick, the Gulls rode the momentum of their victory of the previous night to an early lead when Corey Tropp dug out and forced home a rebound less than three minutes into the game.

San Diego enjoyed the run of play for the next ten minutes, including a short 5 on 3 which they failed to capitalize on. Then with six minutes remaining, the Condors sped into the Gulls zone, losing Benoit then cutting to the net and firing a shot that went in off Logan Shaw for the tie. Another unlucky bounce and the 3rd to go against the Gulls in as many games.

Just as momentum appeared to be sliding the Condors way – thanks in part to their relentless forecheck and tight neutral zone transition – Troy Terry took it upon himself to regain the lead when he played pass with Jones entering the Condors zone before pulling up between the top of the circles and sending an absolute bullet by Al Montoya.

The second period opened with relentless pressure from the Condors, at one point keeping the 2nd line hemmed in for at least two minutes before Terry finally intercepted pass and was able to skate it out himself. The 1st line was starting to look just as badly outplayed, until Corey Tropp drew a boarding penalty. On the ensuing power-play, San Diego wasted no time in making crisp one-touch passes that resulted in Chase De Leo finishing off the play for the 3-1 lead and his 2nd on the season.

The Condors fought right back, gaining the Gulls zone and pressuring the net to immediately get one back as the in-arena announcer was still calling the Gulls’ previous goal. Megna and Oleksy had a complete brain-fart on the play, failing to prevent passes to the slot and not getting to the rebound.

A few minutes later the Condors took advantage of a Gulls miscommunication when Correau left the net to play the puck to Oleksy, who did not receive the pass and the visitors quickly capitalized: tie game.

Just when it seemed the Gulls may have fallen completely asleep, the grind line came out and regained possession in the Condors’ zone, outnumbering down low and finding open space for a tic-tac-toe play between Dostie, Marchment and Thomson to regain the lead.

San Diego held momentum for the next twelve or so minutes until Olesky was forced to take a penalty to prevent a Condors scoring chance on the rush, and Bakersfield retook momentum, keeping the Gulls hemmed in after the penalty had expired.

After the TV timeout the Gulls came back out and generated two chances: one – a shot from Larsson that hit the post, and a few seconds later a nice behind-the-back pass by De Leo that found Sideroff alone in front but he fanned on it.

San Diego started the third with possession and generated a few chances on net while holding the Condors zone. In one sequence of events a net front scramble resulted in Al Montoya staying down and looking hurt (while play went on) and then Logan Shaw looking to tweak a groin as he tried to keep the zone. As he limped off, Terry retrieved the puck to dish to the open slot. An oncoming Sam Carrick easily potted his .. goal and the 5-3 lead.

The Gulls ground out the remainder of the final frame, diligently clearing the puck from their zone and clogging up the neutral zone to frustrate the Condors. With five minutes left, a broken play lead to a Condors’ chance and Andy Welinski air-mailed the puck over the glass for the delay of game. On the resulting Condor power-play an unlucky bounce off the back boards confused the Gulls downlow and the Condors were quick to pounce, bringing the score to 5-4 with four and a half minutes left.

Post Game Notes:

Megna did not have his best game. In fact it was a bit of a nightmare for the newly minted Gulls captain.

Dallas Eakins must have read my update last week – particularly my comments on who to scratch on defense because Keaton Thompson was scratched for this game. Dotchin however, was still not inserted. So it remains to be seen who sits when he is finally ready.

The Gulls were out-shot 49 to 23, another embarrassingly lopsided total and there were sequences where it seemed all the Condors needed to do was gain the zone, win puck battles and they would have a 50% chance of scoring. San Diego – much like their parent club – needs to work on their defensive systems and break-out plays with the upmost importance.