Bakersfield Condors right winger Tyler Benson (left) is pinned on the boards by the San Jose defenceman Barracuda Brinson Pasichnuk (right) on Sat Apr 10, 2021 at Mechanics Bank in Bakersfield (@sjbarracuda photo)

by Marko Ukalovic

BAKERSFIELD, Calif—The Bakersfield Condors scored four unanswered goals en route to a 4-1 win over the San Jose Barracuda on Saturday night at Mechanics Bank Arena.

The Condors have won two games in a row and have 29 points, good for third place in the Pacific Division. San Jose has lost two of its past three games and are in fourth place with 22 points.

San Jose (8-8-4-2) drew first blood halfway through the first period. Robbie Russo found Evan Weinger along the left boards. Weinger threaded a cross ice pass between two Condors defenders over to a wide open Maxim Letunov and he buried the puck into an empty net past Condors goalie Stuart Skinner for his sixth goal of the season at the 10:07 mark.

Letunov now has three goals in his two games fore the ‘Cuda.

San Jose controlled the pace of play in the opening 20 minutes as they outshot Bakersfield 9-6.

It was all Bakersfield (14-9-0-1) from the second period on as they scored two goals in the first six minutes of the middle frame.

Adam Cracknell beat Ryan Merkley to a rebound off the boards and quickly centered a backhand pass over to Seth Griffith who snapped home a wrist shot past ‘Cuda goalie Sam Harvey for his fourth goal of the season at the 2:30 mark.

Less than four minutes later the Condors gained its first lead of the game and never looked back. Luke Esposito gained the puck at the ‘Cuda blueline. He found Joe Gambardella with a backdoor feed and the veteran forward tipped home the puck between his legs past Harvey for his sixth goal of the season at the 6:13 mark.

The Condors had the ice tilted in its favor in the middle frame as they outshot the Barracuda 17-6.

Bakersfield scored an insurance goal insurance goal halfway through the third period. James Hamblin was able to skate around Branson Pasichnuk down the left wing and created a two-on-zero opportunity. Hamblin centered the puck back to Jakob Stukel who beat Harvey with a wrist shot for his fourth goal of the season at the 10:08 mark.

Cooper Marody put the game on ice for the Condors with an empty net goal with 1:52 left in the game. Tyler Benson received the only assist on Marody’s 16th goal of the season.

Skinner finished the evening stopping 21 of the 22 shots he faced to earn the victory. Harvey made 27 saves on 30 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose was 0-for-4 on the power play. Bakersfield went 0-for-3.

‘Cuda goalie Josef Korenar was called up to the San Jose Sharks earlier in the afternoon as the Sharks traded Devan Dubnyk to the Colorado Avalanche for defenseman Greg Pateryn and a 2021 fifth round draft pick. The NHL trading deadline is on Monday.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Gambardella 2) Griffith 3) Stukel

UP NEXT: The Barracuda take on the Ontario Reign on Sunday 4/11 at 3:00pm at the Toyota Sports Performance Center.