LAS VEGAS, Nev – The Bakersfield Condors fought off some early-game jitters and a 2-0 deficit before mounting a comeback for a 3-2 victory after a questionable call kept the game close in the second period of the Pacific Division Semifinal series.
In contrast to game one, Glenn Fisher (32 saves on 35 shots) made a huge first minute save on Condors sniper Chad Painchaud from the top of the slot early on to keep the Condors off the board in the first minute. Bakersfield netminder Yutake Fukufiji (37 saves on 39 shots) made a huge save at the other end on Mike Madill in the first minute as well. Shotly after the save tempers flared and fisticuffs broke out between Steve Makway from the Wranglers and Ryan Huculak from the Condors to get the crowd of 3,276 out of their seats in the early going.
Sean Owens notched his first point of the postseason when he made a nice move to get space in the slot and finished an assist from Hugo Charpentier to give the Wranglers an early 1-0 lead near the midpoint of the period. Dan Reidel gave the Wranglers some breathing room with a blast from the circle to make the score 2-0, scoring his first goal and fourth point of the playoffs on an assist from Adam Miller at 15:01. Shots on goal were 15-9 in the period indicating how the play went.
On the night’s critical play the Wranglers had a goal waived off early in the second period by referee Geno Binda on a quick whistle to keep the Condors in the hunt. Bakersfield took advantage of the call with Chad Painchaud’s first goal of the playoffs on a nice set-up from Dave Bonk at 3:57, a second assist went to Mark Derlago. The Condors rallied back to even the score 2-2 when Derlago batted in a rebound of a shot off the stick of Bonk at 6:41 with a second assist going to Painchaud. Fukufuji shined in the period stopping all 17 shots in the period while Fisher at the other end stopped 12 of 14.
Early in the third period a shot rang off the crossbar behind Fukufuji on a blast from the left circle to keep the Wranglers frustrated. The Condors took that as a wake up call and carried the play for the next several minutes until the Wranglers rang another shot off the crossbar near the midpoint. Las Vegas continued to control much of the play until late in the period when Derlago turned the tide and poked in a rebound of a shot from Painchaud with only 1:36 remaining to give the Condors the lead. A second assist went to Ryan Mahrle on the game winner. Fisher rushed to the bench for the extra attacker with :45 remaining and the Wranglers swarmed on Fukufuji who made several saves down the stretch before a shot whistled just wide at the buzzer to give the Condors the 3-2 win and even the series as they head home for games three, four and five in Bakersfield, next Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The shots on goal in the third period were in Bakersfield’s favor by 12-7 margin. Final shots on goal were in the Wranglers favor 39-35.
Neither team managed a powerplay goal for the second night in a row as Vegas went 0-4 and Bakersfield went 0-2. Play continued to be physical in game two despite the low powerplay numbers. Tempers were clearly flaring as there were skirmishes after nearly every stoppage in play during the third period.
Contact the author at mike.canady@prohockeynews.com
Catch all the playoffs at Intotheboards.net
You must be logged in to post a comment.