Condors Pick Up First Win Of The Season

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BAKERSFIELD, Ca. - Through the first five games of the American Hockey League (AHL) season, Bakersfield Condors coach Jay Woodcroft knew his team wasn’t playing badly.

But heading into Friday night’s home game against the San Diego Gulls, the Condors owned the worst record in the league: 0-5. The Gulls, at 6-0 boasted the best record with three of those wins coming against the Condors.

The Condors, as they had done four previous times this season, scored the first goal and never let up as they cruised to a 5-1 victory.

Just two nights earlier the Condors led the Gulls 2-0 after the first period in Irvine but when the final buzzer sounded it was the Gulls winning 4-3.

This time the Condors led 3-0 after one, gave one back in the second, then sealed the deal with a pair of goals in a span of 14 seconds early in the third.

Here are some takeaways:

Once again the line of Luke Esposito-Brad Malone-Joe Gambardella played well. Esposito got the first goal, unassisted off a steal at his own blue line. Gambardella scored the second goal on a second-effort after a feed from Malone.

“We all want to play together and be out there together, Esposito said of the line. “I think we’re skating off that energy and we work hard for each other. We’re getting some bounces right now which we’ve earned as far as I’m concerned. We all kind of think the same. Hard work. It starts there.”

The special teams were special. The Condors broke an 0-16 run to start the season on the power play with Tyler Benson scoring on the team’s first man advantage to up the lead to 3-0 in the first period. It was Benson’s first goal of the season (more on that later). Bakersfield ended the night 1-3 on the power play and killed all three of San Diego’s chances, including 58 seconds of 5 on 3.

“I thought our special teams were elite tonight,” Woodcroft said. “Scored a big power-play goal and had three penalty kills including a 5 on 3.”

Deflections and banging in rebounds. Three of Bakersfield’s goals came from the edge of the paint, another from between the face-off circles and one from a few feet outside of the right circle.

“We believe we have a template for how we score goals,” Woodcroft said. “I don’t think we’re a style points team, I don’t think we’re gonna stick handle every goal into the back of the net or score from long distances. I think we’re a team that scores dirty goals, is willing to put pucks on the net, to compete for second chances and to be around the paint. For us to score those types of goals tonight I thought was a positive.”

Spreading around the offensive wealth. In addition to Benson, Ryan McLeod and Adam Cracknell also notched their first goals of the season.

“I think it’s positive for them moving forward, to give them a little bit of confidence,” said Woodcroft, noting all three had had opportunities but had been a “little bit snake bitten.”

Goaltending. The last line of defense and Stuart Skinner stood tall, stopping 22 of 23. His counterpart Lukas Dostal, who was 5-0 with a .950 save percentage coming in, was pulled after Cracknell’s goal 4:05 into the third. He stopped 20 of 25 shots.

Three stars:

1 Tyler Benson 2 Luke Esposito 3 Joe Gambardella

Next up: At home Saturday (tonight) vs. Henderson.