Game 45: San Diego Gulls @ Bakersfield Condors – Feb 9

With Jeff Glass making his first back to back start owing to Kevin Boyle still being with the Ducks and actually seeing action coming in relief of the beleaguered Chad Johnson – the Gulls had a tough task facing the hottest team in the Pacific and potentially the league. Justin Kloos was scratched in favour of Ben Thomson – due to illness.

San Diego came out firing setting up Max Jones for a breakaway within the first thirty seconds and following that up with possesion in the Bakersfield zone for the next minute and a half until the Condors got control of the puck and came into the Gulls zone with the speed, catching Glass wildly out of position with a shot that went off a Gull and a broken down play resulted in an opening goal for the Condors on their first shot.

San Diego mustered another breakaway opportunity courtesy of Chase De Leo but were stopped. Bakersfield seemed content with playing both the speed and physical game as they bodied up the Gulls on any opportunity – but also went a tad over the line when a nasty elbow to Max Jones saw the rookie winger look slow leaving the ice after the play. The first period finished with shots 8-7 in favour of San Diego. Max Jones did not return to the bench after the elbow.

The second period began with chances for both clubs but the Condors would strike again in the first three minutes of the middle frame when defender Lagesson pounced on loose puck in the slot and fired it hard at Glass who made the initial save but was massively out of position for the rebound which Lagesson followed up on and fired into the empty net. Jeff Glass’s rebound control is where the Gulls hugely miss Boyle.

Two minutes later the Condors came down low on an odd man rush and roofed it over Glasses shoulder to make it 3-0.

The rest of the action for the middle frame was not really worth writing about as the Gulls were victimized in the same fashion that their parent club currently have been. The period ended with the hosts up 6-0 and shots 25-19.

Eakins made the bold move to replace Glass with Redmond to start the third but I guess when you are already down 6-0 there isn’t really much else to lose.

The Condors continued to frustrate the Gulls by keeping play down low in their zone and forced Redmond to make some point blank stops where he did not look out of place or the least bit nervous, I have to say despite all of my previous misgivings about him; he looked very good in the twenty minutes he played in relief of Glass.

The Gulls did generate a few opportunities including a chance for Ben Thomson right in front after a terrible Condors turnover but again, the execution was not there.
Redmond continued to disallow any further Condor goals while the Gulls were still disjointed at finishing opportunities at the other end so both squads became increasingly more frustrated until a roughing scrum broke out near the sideboards in the Gulls zone, resulting in several players being tossed including Murphy and Thomson.
The resulting four on four had underlying levels of animosity with players attempting open ice hits but missing due to the extra space afforded and San Diego finally got a lucky bounce as Corey Tropp slammed home a pass in front that resulted from a Condors player appearing to be tripped in the San Diego zone.

Bakersfield answered back with a breakaway marker that Redmond could not stop and the game ended mercifully 7-1. The Condors continue to be the Gulls kryptonite as their combination of speed and size appears to prevent them from getting set and playing their game.