BAKERSFIELD, CA. – Eagles forward Sheldon Dries scored the game-tying goal with 26 seconds remaining in regulation, as Colorado rallied to defeat the Bakersfield Condors 5-4 in a shootout on Saturday. Erik Condra and Jacob MacDonald each posted a goal and an assist, while Connor Timmins and Jayson Megna both collected a pair of assists in the victory. The contest saw the Eagles come back from three different deficits, including a 2-0 disparity after the opening 20 minutes of play.
An early power play for the Eagles would take a drastic turn when a turnover inside the Bakersfield blue line sent Condors forward Brad Malone streaking down the ice on a breakaway. After drawing Colorado goaltender Hunter Miska down to the ice, Malone would slip the puck past him with a backhander to put Bakersfield on top, 1-0 at the 8:21 mark of the first period.
Another Eagles turnover just minutes later would set up forward Josh Currie to snap a shot from the slot into the back of the net to stretch the Condors lead to 2-0 with 8:51 remaining in the opening stanza. Colorado would go on to outshoot Bakersfield 10-7 in the period but would head to the first intermission still trailing 2-0.
The Eagles would strike early in the second period when MacDonald fielded a rebound in the low slot and fed the puck past Condors goalie Stuart Skinner to slice Bakersfield’s lead to 2-1 just 55 seconds into the middle frame.
A power play late in the period would set up Condra to grab the puck at the side of the net and bank a shot off of Skinner and into the back of the cage. The tally was Condra’s 15th goal of the season and tied the game at 2-2 at the 15:03 mark.
The Condors would hop back into the driver’s seat on a power play of their own, as Currie stepped into a one-timer from the left-wing circle that would light the lamp and give Bakersfield a 3-2 edge with only 2:07 remaining in the second period.
Still trailing 3-2 to begin the final 20 minutes of regulation, Eagles forward Logan O’Connor would again tie things up when he snagged a rebound on top of the crease and snapped it home to square the score at 3-3 at the 7:18 mark of the third period.
A rush in transition would see Condors forward Joe Gambardella hammer a one-timer from just inside the blue line past Miska to give Bakersfield a 4-3 edge with only 5:08 left to play in the contest.
Colorado would earn a power play in the final 36 seconds of the contest and the opportunity would prove productive, as Megna fired a shot from the right-wing circle that Dries would deflect past Skinner to tie the game at 4-4 with only 26 seconds remaining in regulation.
The contest would then shift to a sudden-death overtime that would see both Miska and Skinner come up with timely saves, ultimately forcing a shootout with the game still deadlocked at 4-4. Eagles forwards Michael Joly and A.J. Greer both found the back of the net in the shootout, while Miska denied Luke Esposito and Evan Bouchard to give Colorado the 5-4 victory.
The Eagles were outshot in the game, 33-29. Colorado finished the evening going 2-for-6 on the power play, while the Condors went 1-for-4 on the man-advantage. The victory was the Eagles fourth consecutive win over Bakersfield in the season series.
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