San Jose, CA – The San Jose Barracuda (30-18-2-4) welcomed the Bakersfield Condors (36-17-2-1) (Edmonton Oilers) into SAP Center at San Jose on Saturday evening for the third-consecutive meeting. A record setting crowd of 8,415 were on hand but a red-hot Condors team proved too much as San Jose was dealt its fourth-straight loss, 7-1.
Saturday’s game was game two of a #HockeyDayInSanJose doubleheader as the Barracuda followed up a Sharks victory earlier in the day. Saturday was also Nickelodeon Night as the Barracuda wore specialty Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle jerseys and the first 4,000 fans received a Radim Simek/Tomas Hertl bobblehead.
Only four minutes into the first period the Condors opened up the scoring on their first shot of the evening. Logan Day sent a stretch pass up ice that sent Tyler Benson (11) on a breakaway and the rookie buried a wrister under the blocker of Josef Korenar to give Bakersfield a 1-0 lead at 4:34. With 5:12 remaining in the period, the Condors would score again, this time off of a faceoff following an icing call against the Barracuda. Luke Esposito won the draw back William Lagesson (6) who snapped a shot from the left point that beat a screened Korenar through the five-hole to extend the Condor’ lead to 2-0.
San Jose’s lone goal came at 5:31 of the second when a scramble broke out in front of the Bakersfield net and Maxim Letunov (10) poked the puck past the right skate of Condor’ goaltender Shane Starrett. Just a minute and 10 seconds later the Condors would score twice to take a 4-1 lead. First, Benson would lead a rush for Bakersfield and drop a pass to Cooper Marody (14) who swiped in a quick shot from the slot past Korenar’s glove to make it 3-1 Bakersfield at 13:31. 21 seconds later, Patrick Russell (16) spun a partially blocked Lagesson shot past Korenar from the slot at 6:41. Bakersfield would complete the three-goal period when Braden Christoffer (5) would pop in a loose puck from the low slot at 12:45.
San Jose headed into the third period facing a four-goal deficit, but seven minutes into the final frame the ‘Cuda saw the deficit increase to five. Russell (17) took a cross-ice pass from Joe Gambardella and rocketed a one-timer through the right pad of Korenar to make it 6-1 on the power-play. And then Evan Polei (8) would wrap up the scoring for the Condors at 15:07 when he wired a shot under the cross bar from the top of the left circle.
Korenar (19-8-1) suffered the loss after giving up seven goals on 32 shots while Starrett (23-4-3) earned his 11th-straight road win by making 27 saves on 28 shots.
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