Game 37: San Diego Gulls vs Bakersfield Condors – Jan 19

On Star Wars night the Gulls were ready for a test – continuing their fifteen game point streak while missing Max Jones, Troy Terry and Sam Carrick. To make up for Carrick’s absence, Keaton Thompson was again inserted on the fourth line.

The Gulls appeared to come out flat and were clearly not the hungrier team. It did not help that Keaton Thompson – playing center – could not win a faceoff. Alex Dostie did not carry on his strong play from the last game to start off with; Sam Steel however, did. The rookie shifted in and out, keeping the puck on a string and eventually got held by an opposing defender as he kept the Condors at bay with a one-man possession show. On the ensuing power play Kiefer Sherwood had a golden opportunity from the slot, but hit the post. The period ended with the Gulls only generating three shots on net to the Condors’ ten, despite having an additional power-play during that span.

San Diego again came out flat to begin the second – getting victimized by an odd-man rush and surrendering the games opening score when the Condors forward fanned on the shot as he skated in on Boyle. On the immediate shift after the Condors won the center ice face off, they got the puck deep, won the puck battle and sent a shot on Boyle that barely got by him, sneaking over the line for a quick 2-0 lead.

The Gulls appeared to wake up after that and held possession while generating all of the next few scoring chances. However the Condors got the next marker – capitalizing on yet another man advantage, awarded when Corey Tropp was forced to drag down his man on the breakaway after he fumbled the puck in the neutral zone.

The penalty troubles continued for the Gulls as Korbinian Holzer was assessed a dubious boarding call to put the Gulls down two men and join Trevor Murphy in the box who was already serving an equally dubious “kneeing” penalty. San Diego managed to kill both penalties including the forty second five on three.

San Diego kept at it and finally got on the board courtesy of a Jake Dotchin slapshot from the point that initially appeared to be tipped by Steel but actually hit a Condors player on its way in.

BJ said it best with five seconds left to play in the second – “the Gulls haven’t really been on the same page for the last forty minutes”, suggesting that they needed to get it together for the remaining period and get some more shots on net if they wanted to make the come back and keep the streak going.

Despite San Diego pressuring in the final frame, the visitors regained their three goal lead just before the midway point of the period and it looked like the streak was likely to end.

Then Adam Cracknell made things interesting, getting another one back to make it 4-2 with just under ten minutes left when he beat out an icing call and threw the puck off the back of the Condors’ netminder.

However the Condors re-asserted their three goal lead when a three on two rush back into the Gulls’ zone was finished off with ease with a nice wrist shot that Boyle could not see through a screen.

They then iced it into the empty net with three and a half minutes left while Boyle was pulled for the extra attacker to put the ultimate downer on what was a very disappointing and off night for the Gulls.