Looking for a bounce back after a rough 4-0 loss to the Abbotsford Canucks the Gulls regrouped and redeployed with Lukas Dostal back from Anaheim to get his first start in a week. Fortunately for San Diego, Edmonton had recently been hit by injury and Covid related absences leading to the Condors losing Cooper Marody and Seth Griffith to recall.
Buddy Robinson and Sam Carrick were still with the Ducks, while Axel Andersson remained the only Gull yet to return from injury.
First Period:
Bakersfield had the better of possession and shots in the early going as the Gulls appeared to carry over some of the uncertainty they displayed in their most recent loss. Bakersfield helped their own situation by setting subtle picks and running interference plays – one of which I felt was obvious enough to be called but the first penalty of the game went to Jacob Perreault for a dubious “trip” that was more like a hit that the Condors player avoided but Perreault caught his leg on the follow through.
After killing the penalty San Diego attempted to generate some form of offense as they quickly found themselves behind 7-2 in shots. Jack Badini having perhaps the best chance of the period when he showed some surprising speed down the wing and looked off a pass to fire a shot that rang hard off the post.
The unfamiliar trios put together by Coach Bouchard appeared to be slowly gaining some semblance of chemistry as Brayden Tracey set up BO Groulx for a chance in the slot but his shot was snagged by the Condors goaltender Konovalov.
Bakersfield made another push in the dying minutes and took a 1-0 lead on a pass to the high slot that beat Dostal clean top corner. 1-0 Condors.
San Diego heading to the first intermission down by one and looking slightly out of sorts, much like the team we saw at the start of the season. Shots were 13-5 for the Condors.
Second Period: Bakersfield Condors 1 – San Diego Gulls 0
Things went from bad to worse as the Condors took a 2-0 lead a minute and a half into the second period when Raphael Lavoie chased down a loose puck and swung it back out in front to waiting and open team-mate. 2-0 on a complete lack of compete and urgency from San Diego.
Again Jack Badini had the Gulls best chance of the early goings in the period as Rafferty set him up on a shorthanded chance but the former Harvard forward was robbed by a sliding stop from Konovalov.
The missed opportunity gave San Diego some life and they set to work getting sustained pressure and some good chances in the Bakersfield zone for the first time all game, but Konovalov continued to frustrate.
A bad Greg Pateryn clearance lead to an intercept and goal for Raphael Lavoie as San Diego continued to put on an under-confident and uninspired display in front of their home crowd. 3-0 Condors.
As San Diego continued to frustrate their fans with incomplete passes and one-sided puck battles a ray of light suddenly emerged when Greg Printz got to a puck in the Condors zone first and immediately fed it to a waiting Sean Josling in the slot for his first AHL goal. 3-1 Condors.
On the shift immediately after Hunter Drew almost made it 3-2 when he came inches from connecting on a easy tap-in off of a two on one rush.
San Diego headed to the second intermission down by two and out-shot 11-4 on the period to be behind by a total of 24-9 shots but carrying some hope after the Josling goal.
Third Period: Bakersfield Condors 3 – San Diego Gulls 1
San Diego looked slightly better to start the third, creating chances in the Condors zone within the first minute but the baffling lack of calls from the Officials remained a consistent trend as Bryce Kindopp was checked not once but twice without the puck behind the play and no call nor acknowledgment was made by the zebras.
San Diegos lack lustre game continued as the Condors added to their total from a seemingly innocent fade-away shot taken from near the point that beat Dostal through traffic. 4-1 Condors.
San Diego finally got their second Power Play of the game when Condors Captain Brad Malone roughed up Jacob Perreault behind the play and continued to abuse him after the whistle then had the gall to make a diving motion as he went to the box whilst the Pechanga Faithful booed and jeered in chorus.
There isn’t much else to say about the rest of the period other than the Gulls continued to play like shit while the Officials kept making weird non-calls or inconsistent calls against the Gulls.
San Diego eventually losing 5-1 with a sparse crowd that had since departed when they saw the product on the ice was not worth the price of admission.
Post Game Notes:
What Was That?
I didn’t watch past the first period of the last game but it feels like the last two games for the Gulls have been abjectly horrible. Who is this team and what have they done with the once confident and high-scoring bunch we witnessed not less than two weeks ago? Bakersfield were missing their top two scorers, San Diego should have been ALL over them but instead they looked timid, slow and completely out of sync.
Snake Bitten Limoges
I had Limoges as one of my Gulls to watch this season but he has failed to fire, scoring just four goals and providing two assists in sixteen games. He should not shoulder all of the blame, he has been out with injury and has failed to find chemistry with a rotating array of line-mates. The Gulls have scored just four goals in their last three games, three of those came in the one game over Ontario. They need goals and they need goal scorers like Limoges to get hot but they aren’t helping things when they place him with unfamiliar line-mates. On that note…
Those Lines…
Not sure who I blame here – Talbot or Bouchard, but those lines were…. just strange. Groulx, Limoges and Kindopp had chemistry and all three players are ice cold – get them going by putting them back together! The only reasoning I can think of for keeping Groulx away from the other pair is concern he will just get called up again and roll-back any forward momentum generated but fuck – it cant hurt to try? At least they kept the Perreault-O’Regan-Tracey line together. It feels like the coaching staff are running out of ideas and I am really starting to miss Kevin Dineen (who by the way has an 18-1-2 Utica Comets team just destroying the Eastern AHL).
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