Max Jones (16) chases down a puck in action against Bakersfield. Credit San Diego Gulls.
With speculation that Eakins might rest several players and take advantage of the Gulls plentiful supply of healthy scratches after the marathon win the previous night he ended up making just the two changes to the line-up. Jake Dotchin came in to replace Josh Mahura who was mysteriously not seen in the overtime periods despite being on the bench. In the forwards – Adam Cracknell drew back in at the expense of Kevin Roy. Kevin Boyle was given the start.
Bakersfield had the better of opportunities to start, testing Kevin Boyle early but the former UMASS standout looked calm and composed as he weathered the early storm. Off a face-off from a TV timeout Isaac Lundestrom won a faceoff in the Condors zone to Cracknell whose shot generated a rebound for Comtois but Bakersfield goaltender Dylan Wells made the stop. Minutes later Max Jones finished a hard open ice hit that the Officials deemed as an elbow and the Gulls went to the first penalty kill of the game.
After killing the penalty the Gulls headed back to the attack and the hitting picked up again. Simon Benoit executing a beautiful open ice hit near center ice on Ethan Bear and soon after – out of camera shot a penalty was called on the Condors for slashing. On the man advantage the Gulls best chance came from Adam Cracknell on the right side but his hard wrist shot hit the post. A net front scramble to end the power play saw Corey Tropp engaged with Condors defender Lagesson who appeared to infuriate Tropp to the point where he almost physically hit the official trying to hold him back – BJ speculated on the broadcast that it looked like an eye gauge.
No call was made on the play and both teams seemed to settle down somewhat, settling into a back and forth swing of momentum until the final two minutes of the period when a point shot from Trevor Murphy was tipped by Kiefer Sherwood at the front of the net to give the Gulls their first opening score of any of their games thus far in the postseason. 1-0 Gulls.
Shots were 13 – 7 for the Gulls after the first twenty minutes
San Diego controlled play to start the second through shifts from the Rookie line and the Veteran line. Then Max Comtois got his second goal in as many postseason games as he finished off a nice pass from Cracknell in front after he had collected a rebound from a Lundestrom shot. 2-0 Gulls.
Moments later Jake Dotchin was assessed a minor once again for presumably being a large human and the Gulls went to their second penalty kill. The Condors were able to hold the San Diego zone for much of this one but both units did a good job of keeping shots to the perimeter and Boyle was not forced to make any game-saving stops.
Things started to open up after the midway point of the period as chances went to end to end for both teams. But again; San Diego prevented any high danger chances on Boyle by always ensuring they had their zone covered and hustling back on any potential odd man rushes.
San Diego executed a textbook road game to close out the remainder of the period as they allowed just 5 shots on Boyle while generating a further 13 to add to their total. Bringing it to 26-12 after forty minutes.
Bakersfield came out with a push to start the third and held the Gulls zone as well as possession for the majority of the first four minutes. It felt like something was going to give if San Diego did not get back to their aggressive fore-check from the previous two periods and sure enough a point shot from Ethan Bear made it by Boyle to get the Condors on the board. 2-1 Gulls.
Bakersfield followed that up with yet more pressure and it was only Kevin Boyle that was the difference on some last minute desperation saves. There was a tense moment as on the second of many net-front scrambles he lay prone on the ice for several minutes as it was shown on the replay that he was knee’d in the head by a Condors player going through his crease. He came off looking dazed and Jeff Glass came in.
The Gulls didn’t initially respond right away to the Boyle injury but slowly they did manage to regain some semblance of possession, despite Glass having to make some big stops right away. The Condors were starting to feed off of the increased speed and were closing gaps on San Diego but once again it was the Cracknell, Lundestrom, Comtois line that were able to set things right again as Isaac Lundestrom found a loose puck near the left side boards and used the preposterous amount of time and space afforded him to wire a shot high over the shoulder of Wells for the Gulls 3-1 lead.
Bakersfield pulled Wells with under two minutes to go, Comtois had a shot but missed wide to ice. Then off of the next face-off as Adam Cracknell got possession he took a shot and hit the empty net to make it 4-1.
Right off the center ice draw Sam Carrick engaged with Esposito for a very one-sided fight that Esposito probably regretted partaking in after the first five seconds
San Diego finished off the game with ease, getting one final chance from Kloos in the slot and then winding the clock down to take it out 4-1 and head home to San Diego with a 2-0 series lead. Shots were 39-28 for San Diego to finish.
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