Pacific Division race heats up

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – The Bakersfield Condors have seen their thirteen point lead in the Pacific division dwindle down to five over the last few weeks.   The Stockton Thunder has won seven of their last games to close the gap, culminating over the weekend to garner three of four possible points against the Condors.
 
In Fridays game, the Condors came out strong, when former Thunder right wing Stephane Goulet passed the puck to Matt Pope, to fire a shot past Andrew Perugini on the glove side to the back of the net.   Stockton quickly answered back, just over a minute later, with a goal by Captain J.F. Caudron.   Timo Pielmeier had defended a couple of rebound shots, but when he wound up on his stomach, he wasn’t able to stop the shot. Bakersfield’s Adam Naglich found the net through traffic to put the Condors up 2-1 at the bell.  
 
The second period, Sasha Pokulok, in a power play, fired a slapshot from just inside the blue line that slipped past Perugini to extend the Condor lead.   Caudron scored his second goal of the game only a few minutes later, while on a power play.   The Condors went to the break ahead 3-2.
 
Stockton came out with an agenda in the third period, when James Bates put a wrist shot rebound past Pielmeier on another power play, to tie the game.   At 13:35, Chris D’Alvise gave the Thunder their first lead of the game, with a wrist shot that slipped in past the blocker side of Pielmeier.
 
Despite the Thunders hard work and remarkable defense, they weren’t able to hold on to take the game.   A late Thunder penalty and Pielmeier pulled for the extra skater gave the Condors the six-on-four man advantage, which led to a Chris Allen goal with only 32 seconds remaining in regulation time.
 
There were no goals in the overtime, as the Condor defense held the Thunder to only one single shot on goal.   Perugini blocked four of the Condors shots, forcing a shootout.  
 
It would be Pielmeier’s stellar work in the net, to stop all four Thunder players from finding the net.   Both Stephane Goulet and Mathieu Aubin were able to slip the puck past Perugini to give Bakersfield the extra point and the win, with a final score of 5-4.
 
Perugini had a great night, posting 39 saves on the night.   Perugini, who was named ECHL Goaltender of the week recently, has reached the top in the ECHL with a .921 save percentage and 2.57 goals against average.
 
“It was an unfortunate game; it was kind of a fluky goal. It hit a couple of our players and then went in,” said Perugini on the tying goal in the third period, “then they went on to win in the shootout.”
 
Bates remarked about game preparations for the next game, “We didn’t’ play very well last night. Coach made us realize that in video today with a few clips.”
 
Fast forward to Saturday’s game; fans arrived early for the toilet plunger promotion.   Early arrivers were rewarded with a Condor Plunger, which carried the Condors town logo on the handle and a Thunder logo on the business end.   But, in the end the handful of Thunder fans in attendance would get the last laugh, as they flushed Bakersfield in a 2-0 shutout in regulation time.
 
Both teams displayed high energy skating and hard hits at both ends. The goal tending by Perugini and Pielmeier was play-off caliber.   The first period ended with no goals.  
 
The Thunder’s scoring leader, Bates fired a wrist shot that sailed past Pielmeier about seven minutes into the second, with assists to D’Alvise and Matt Robinson.
 
“It was a nice play. Robinson made a great play on a back end to see me coming late across the ice,” said Bates about his goal. “I think D’Alvise made an even better play, when he let it go through his skates. He could have easily taken that, but the D was on him. I think he recognized that and somehow he knew I was behind him and he let it go to me and I tried to get on it as fast as possible and it went in.”
 
Stockton’s Oren Eizenman scored the second goal in the third period, assisted by Caudron.   The Thunder’s defense remained hot, as Perugini posted 45 saves on the night.   Pielmeier would take the loss in the net, with 24 saves.
 
Said Perugini about the shutout, “Just got to forget about [the loss last night] and not care about what happened. I had to give my team the best chance to win.”
 
Thunder Coach Matt Thomas spoke regarding the win. “I didn’t think we executed very well last night. We were a shell of ourselves in terms of how we’ve been playing. This was kind of a scrappy playoff type game tonight. We didn’t get much opportunity to make plays out there, so when we did, we had to really execute. Perugini was the difference.”
 
Thomas was satisfied with tonight’s win. “Three points out of the first place team on the road was a pretty good weekend for us.”
 
The speed of the game was fast and furious. Thomas said, “I think we needed the speed. We didn’t move our feet enough last night. We needed to come in and dictate the pace.   We are a puck pressure type of team and so were they; it provided a nice contest up and down the ice.”
 
“We knew what we needed to do, to be better; to really push the pace and be up on their d-man. We couldn’t give them much time to skate and make plays; we needed to force them to make some quick decisions and because of that, we got some turnovers. It was good.” said Bates after the win.
 
The teams will face one another for two more games in late March, one home game apiece.  
In a Sunday matinee game, Bakersfield was defeated in  Ontario 6-4, to keep the Condors within stricking distance by the Thunder.   Stockton will continue their road trip, heading to Utah for a game on Tuesday.
 
Contact the writer at Shellie.Lima@prohockeynews.com
Contact the photographer at Jack.Lima@prohockeynews.com