BAKERSFIELD, Ca – In a change of pace from the first two games, defense took the night off in game three and the goalies were left to fend for themselves. Both clubs fired at will while racking up 11 goals and a combined 107 shots in 75:50 of playing time.
The Wranglers looked to change the momentum from game two by switching to goaltender John DeCaro (47 saves on 52 shots) from Glenn Fisher. DeCaro had gone 3-5 in previous playoff appearances with a 3.13 goals against average. Reinforcements also arrived for Las Vegas from the AHL yesterday in the form of defenseman Dan Spang, right wing J.D. Watt and forward Mike Hamilton. The Condors added Bobby Bolt to the lineup, an Anaheim draft pick, who was seeing his first action since November due to injury.
In game one all three Wrangler goals were scored by the line of Dan Riedel, Adam Miller and Kelly Czuy and each finished plus three on the night. In Game two, the line of Mark Derlago, Dave Bonk and Chad Painchaud combined to score all three Condors goals and each finished plus three on the night. Neither team had found the net on the power play. Neither team who scored first on the night had won either game (which held true on this night).
To open the scoring Vegas ‘ Steve Makway lifted a rebound over Yutaka Fukufuji (50 saves on 55 shots) with his first goal of the playoffs off a shot from Watt near the midpoint of the first period. An assist went to Scott McCulloch. Czuy made it 2-0 shortly after with a fake move around a defender and a quick wrister over the glove of Fukufuji from Reidel and
Photo by Michael Duffy
The Condors came back early in the second period with Andrew Ianiero’s first goal of the night on assists from Bolt and Langager (his third of the night). Bakersfield evened the score 4-4 with a power play goal from Bonk, which gave him a hat trick, with assists to Brett Pilkington and Painchaud at 7:08. Bakersfield kept the pressure on and took the lead 5-4 at the 13:01 mark when Bonk deflected in his fourth of the night on assists from Painchaud (his third of the night) and Ryan Mahrle. The Wranglers came right back 55 seconds later tying it 5-5 with a one-timer off the stick of Spang on a crucial two-man advantage, assists went to Reidel and Czuy. Both teams combined for an astonishing 74 shots and 10 goals over the first two periods with the Condors outshooting the Wranglers 14-12 in the period.
The game tightened up considerably in the third period and there was no scoring. Bakersfield had a huge opportunity when they found themselves on a two-man advantage for one minute and seven seconds near the period’s midpoint but were unable to convert. Painchaud barely missed wide on a tip-in attempt and from there the Wranglers defense shut the door in killing off the remainder of the penalties. DeCaro made a huge save with four seconds remaining in regulation on Bonk to send the game to overtime. The Condors doubled up the shots 18-9 on the Wranglers in the third period, many of the Condor shots were from the perimeter and while they did control much of the play they only created a few solid scoring chances.
Vegas got an opportunity at 11:58 of the first overtime when Bonk was called for hooking. The Wranglers offense stalled and then they killed their own man disadvantage when Czuy was called at 13:37 for hooking giving the Condors a power play for a minute and 38 seconds.
Bakersfield converted the power play right before it expired to win the game 6-5 at 15:26 when Bruce Graham lifted a rebound over a sprawling DeCaro. Decaro stopped a point shot from Donny Grover, but Graham finished it off. Mike Wirll added an assist on the game winner. Overtime shots on goal were eight apiece for a game total of 55-52 in the Condors favor.
Bakersfield went 3-7 on the power play while Las Vegas was 2-6. The attendance in Bakersfield was 4544, very respectable for a weeknight.
Contact mike.canady@prohockeynews.com
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