The Willie O’Ree celebration night began with the Gulls skating out in throwback jerseys that looked straight fire.
San Diego dominated from the opening, Sam Steel speeding through the neutral zone and splitting the defense, getting a shot on net while drawing a penalty – his third drawn in two games. San Diego seemed to setup in an umbrella and Troy Terry attempted to feed Lundestrom three times for the one timer but the 18 year old could not convert.
Bakersfield generated a couple of chances including an odd man rush that resulted in a penalty shot but on the immediate shift after the Gulls opened the scoring on a pretty passing play between Blandisi and Tropp after a perfect breakout pass from Sam Steel.
The period ended with shots 14 – 13 in favor of the Gulls.
Jaycob Megna was supposedly injured during this period, but I did not see the play that it happened on.
The second period began with some sloppy back and forth play that was mostly restricted to the neutral zone, until Chase De Leo drove into the Bakersfield zone with speed and was first to a loose puck that he then put a shot on net, and Max Comtois coralled the rebound to make it 2-0 Gulls.
Less than a minute later and San Diego’s speed proved troublesome for Bakersfield as they drew yet another penalty on a slash from an odd man rush, and Corey Tropp wasted no time in providing the 3-0 league, shoveling in a net front chance after a shot from Lundestrom landed neatly in the crease.
San Diego controlled play for much of the rest of the period, but Bakersfield kept things interesting with one or two chances of their own, and it seemed the game would remain at 3-0 until the Gulls drew yet another penalty. The first unit of Terry, Tropp, Lundestrom, Mahura and Jones refused to let Bakersfield get possession for almost the entire two minutes, until Troy Terry walked in from the point and ripped a wicked wrist show by the Bakersfield goaltender for the 4-0 lead and his 3rd goal in as many games.
The period ended with the exact same shot totals from the first, San Diego again narrowly out-shooting the visitors 14-13.
Words must have been delivered with high velocity between periods because the Condors came out with determination to start the final frame, drawing a penalty when the Gulls were forced to prevent a scoring chance in front. Just as the puck was touched to stop play, Jesse Puljujarvi made the the mistake of drawing Corey Tropp into a fight and well… – that didn’t last long.
The worst possible news occurred as Troy Terry was forced to leave the game five minutes into the third on what appeared to be an arm injury; he fell awkwardly into the boards just prior to limping to the bench before heading to the locker at the next break in play.
Bakersfield appeared to control play for much of the rest of the game, overtaking the Gulls in shots but only generating maybe four high danger chances in a span that included a power plae. The Gulls retook momentum briefly when Corey Tropp was hooked on a partial breakaway. Terry was replaced by De Leo on the top unit and the Gulls came close when Max Jones used silky smooth hands to move in from below the goal line to directly in front but was denied. Simon Benoit also came close when he made a move to get in scoring position between the hash marks, but was also stopped. I estimate San Diego had even scoring chances despite being outshot 43-38 at this point.
Bakersfield got one back when a wrist-shot from the point appeared to be accidentally deflected by Keaton Thompson past Kevin Boyle but San Diego finished things off for the 4-1 win. Things got more than a little chippy in the final five minutes with misconducts being handed out to Tropp and Poleo for the Condors, and again when Jake Dotchin challenged the entire Condors bench then blew them kisses as he was led out to the locker room (I love this kid).
2024-2025 Game 12: San Diego Gulls at Tucson Roadrunners
Tucson, Arizona. After yet another disappointing last few minute loss the San Diego Gulls …