Tag: Bakersfield Condors

Outdoor hockey in Sacramento

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment
Heat Sat
The Heat and Condors salute the crowd. Photo credit: Asvitt Photo

by Charlie O. Mallonee

West Sacramento – We now know how to get it to rain in California. Just plan an outdoor professional hockey match and wait for the rain to fall.

The Stockton Heat and the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League (AHL) were scheduled to play an outdoor hockey game at Raley Field in West Sacramento on Friday night. Mother Nature had other plans. The skies opened up and brought much needed rain to the Capital City.

The good news was it rained. The bad news is the rain made it impossible to skate on the outdoor ice without compromising the safety of the players. The game was postponed until Saturday afternoon.

The weather was much more cooperative on Saturday and hockey was played outdoors in front of 9,357 fans. The large attendance would have made the game a success but a close game made the event even better.

The Heat defeated the Condors 3-2 in the outdoor affair.

Bakersfield took the lead on first period goal. Stockton came back and tied the game in the second period on a goal by forward Derek Grant. The teams headed to the final period tied 1-1. The Heat struck for two more goals in the third period. Defenseman Oliver Kylington put one through the 5-hole at 7:26 and forward Drew Shore scored an unassisted goal at the 10:59 mark.

Kyle Platzer scored a late goal for the Condors but it was too little too late. The Heat prevailed and won the game 3 goals to 2.

Many are wondering if this game might have been a market test to see how Sacramento might support professional hockey. There has been speculation that the AHL would like to expand on the West Coast and Sacramento will have a new arena available in October 2016.

Speculation aside, over 9,000 fans witnessed an great show on the ice, outdoors on Saturday night.

Playoff Hockey: Underdogs, Upsets and Staying the Course

Published on by M WalshLeave a comment

By Mary Walsh

It has been a busy few days in playoff hockey. Thursday, the Montreal Canadiens pushed back to stop the New York Rangers from taking a 3-0 series lead. That show starred Montreal’s rookie goaltender Dustin Tokarski. Friday, the ECHL’s Bakersfield Condors won their first Conference Final game at home. Saturday night, the Los Angeles Kings took a 2-1 series lead over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Now that the Kings have taken a lead in a series, and scored dozens of goals against the daunting Blackhawks (actually only 11 so far), is it safe to say that maybe the 2013-14 Sharks were not that far from their goal, if they were able to beat Los Angeles three games in a row? No. The Kings have proceeded at an erratic pace but they built up momentum in each progressive series. A strong start does not make up for a weaker finish, so the Sharks can’t take too much comfort in the Kings’ success thus far. The Kings are making a habit of giving up leads only to take them back, but that doesn’t mean there were not a lot of holes in the Sharks roster and strategy. Can the Sharks seal up those holes?

The good news, the biggest and best news from Shark territory so far, is that Larry Robinson has agreed to stay on. His new title is Associate Coach and Director of Player Development. If his title was “Guy Who Does Whatever He Feels Like Doing Today In The General Vicinity San Jose” it would still be a good deal. He is that helpful. It can also be seen as a positive indicator for the team: if Robinson thinks that staying on will not be a futile waste of his time, perhaps fans should have a little faith too.

Thursday on Yahoo! Sports Talk Live, Doug Wilson said that he does not have specific plans to acquire a big name free agent this summer. He did not rule it out but he did not say it was a goal. He also said that missing the playoffs for several seasons starting next year was not his plan. He does not plan to move his best young players. This makes me think that, despite pressure from the fan base and many sources of common sense, he could be planning very little in the way of major roster moves. I do not think that is a bad thing, but I am sure it would be unpopular.

Popular or not, moving big names to shake the team up is an enormous risk. How do you trade away Joe Thornton and/or Patrick Marleau, and avoid slipping badly in the standings, unless you pick up another very high-end forward to replace them? Do you get that player via trade? Who do you get them for if you want to keep your young roster? Do the Sharks have the picks to land such a player? As Wilson mentioned Thursday, however you bring someone in, you need to consider the impact that player will have on your younger players. He needs to not only be productive in his own right but supportive of your development plan.

Do Thornton and Marleau not fit that mold? There is no indication that either one of them undermines or stifles growth in their teammates. Their presence may be growing stale but change for change’s sake rarely pays off.

James Mirtle and Justin Bourne had a Twitter conversation about the high number of minutes being given to fourth lines in the Eastern Conference Final. It makes perfect sense, especially when teams have played a seven game series already, or more, to spread minutes around. But this means that you do need versatile players on that fourth line. You need guys who are reliable in the faceoff circle, tough along the boards, good shots, and reasonably able playmakers. As I said last week, you don’t need Mike Richards on that line but you do need someone who brings a lot more than energy and toughness.

Not so long ago people recognized that space on the bench could no longer be spared for designated fighters who could not do more than fight. Now the bar has been raised still higher: you need four lines that can play more than ten minutes and be better than “not a liability.” Your top six should not need more than 25 minutes per player to get the job done, and your fourth line should merit more than ten. Energy efficiency is about more than Gatorade.

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Dustin Tokarski. Folks who actually follow the Habs probably were not very surprised to see him chosen over Peter Budaj. Putting a rookie goaltender in a high pressure playoff situation is not unheard of, it just doesn’t often work out so well. A rookie comes in with some intangibles in his favor. Even if he has been scouted as much as possible, he simply has not played enough to be thoroughly scouted so the opponent won’t know how to beat him right away. That advantage fades fast. Another benefit can be that his team will rally around him, tighten up on defense to protect him. Or they might let him get shot to pieces like the Habs did in the first period of Game 3. That is where the real surprise was lurking, when Tokarski held the Habs in the game despite a 14-4 shot advantage for the Rangers. Tokarski may not be ready to steal a series but he certainly silenced the death knells in Montreal for now.

I find the Eastern Conference Final much more compelling than the Western, but I like upsets and underdogs. Both the Canadiens and the Rangers are sort of underdogs who achieved upsets. They are good teams, but the Canadiens were not supposed to beat the bestest team ever, aka the Bruins, because winners are supposed to play a big bruising game like the Bruins do. The Habs won anyway, and they did it their way.

The Rangers were not supposed to beat the Penguins because the Penguins have high performance superstars like Malkin and Crosby, while the Rangers had so many underperforming superstars like Nash, Richards and St. Louis. On top of that, the Rangers had to muscle through a brutal schedule to get where they are, and they did so anyway. Personal tragedy is getting a lot of credit for their turnaround, but they had all of these pieces from the get go. It is satisfying to see them go ahead like a dark horse people forgot about.

Speaking of dark horses, the Condors’ Friday win gave them a 2-1 lead in the series against the Alaska Aces. Saturday, the Aces thumped them 4-1 and tied the series back up. That is not very surprising. The Aces are aces. Nonetheless, the Condors are making a little Central Valley history this weekend. That the Condors ever took a lead in the series is impressive and inspiring. This is their first appearance in a Conference Final, and they have held their own. They have earned the nickname “Cardiac Condors” with numerous comebacks thus far and the Aces would be foolish to back off now. If the Aces come back tomorrow and stomp them like they did tonight, Condors fans have still gotten their money’s worth from a team that made an amazing turnaround in a season. After so many years of being perpetual playoff also-rans, this is a mighty accomplishment for Bakersfield.

Bulls fall 4-2 to Condors

Published on by philliptorres2013Leave a comment

By: Phillip Torres

BAKERSFIELD-The San Francisco Bulls (14-20-4-1) fell to the Bakersfield Condors (15-17-1-1) Friday night in Bakersfield. Ryan Garlock played his first game with the Bulls on Wednesday, and now played his first game against his former team in Bakersfield just two days later. Garlock earned a point with an assist on the night.

The Bulls held the early lead as Brett Findlay scored the first goal at 6:42 in the opening period. Jordan Morrison earned the assist on the play. Findlay knocked in the puck following a Jordan Morrison pass that helped set up the early advantage. 

Chase Schaber evened up the score at 1-1  at 14:07. Joel Broda earned the assist as Schaber was able to control the rebound after a missed shot by Broda. Schaber was able to get the puck past Bulls goaltender Tyler Beskorowany. 

Dean Ouellet gave San Francisco its second lead of the game with an early goal in the second. Garlock earned the assist against his former team with an excellent past to Ouellet on a three on two advantage to take the 2-1 lead. Andrew Caroll tied the game yet again for the Condors to make it 2-2. 

Bakersfield scored three unanswered goals after trailing 2-1. Broda gave them their first lead of the game with a power play goal. The goal made it 3-2 Condors, and ultimately was the winning goal. Cameron Abney made it 4-2 shortly after and that remained the score throughout the game.

The third period was scoreless for both teams. Laurent Brossoit held the Bulls scoreless for over 35 minutes and that cost the Bulls the victory.The Bulls will play in Stockton on Sunday as they will be hosted by the Stockton Thunder. The puck will drop at 4 P.M. 

 

 

Quick strikes doom the Bulls, lose 5-2

Published on by kahlilnajar7Leave a comment
Photo Courtesy of San Francisco Bulls
Photo Courtesy of San Francisco Bulls

By Kahlil Najar

SAN FRANCISCO -Three quick goals at the start of the third period proved too much for the Bulls (5-11-1-1) to overcome as they lost the end of a back-to-back series against the Bakersfield Condors (4-12-0-1) 5-2. Tyler Gron and Adrian Foster are proving that Pat Curcio made the right move in trading for them as they contributed a goal a piece and were active throughout the contest. Tyler Beskorowany had a great first and second period as he stopped 16 of 18 shots but it was the third that was the dagger when he let in three goals in under 4 minutes.

The first period proved to be a tough one for the Bulls as they were only able to land two shots on goal and allowed the Condors to take 13 including a goal from Jordan Knackstedt. The Bulls had the puck in the Condors zone but the puck bounced over a Bulls stick and landed on the Condors Joel Broda’s blade. Broda sprinted up ice with a trailing Knackstedt. Broda took a shot that Beskorowany was able to slow down but then it trickled through his five hole and Knackstedt was able to put the puck in the wide open net and give the Condors a 1-0 lead. Both teams played friendly for the rest of the period but you could tell something was in the air as more sticks started swinging in the air and the pushing and shoving began.

The Bulls tied up the game with less than two minutes gone in the second period. After some fierce battling in the Condors zone, the Bulls were able to keep the puck in the zone and Adrian Foster redirected a shot from Dylan King for his first goal of the year and tie it up at one. Then the fun started.

Adrian Foster was camping out in front of the Condors goal and was pushed into Condors goalie Tyler Bunz. Bunz didn’t take too kindly to the interference so he smacked Foster in the face.  When Foster tried to defend himself, the Condors Cunningham came into protect his goalie and skirmish ensued. After some more rough housing, Dean Ouellet and Jordan Knackstedt did some dancing around and some yelling at each other that earned them both 10 minute misconducts. In the span of 30 seconds of ice time, the Bulls and Condors received 14 minutes of penalties.

At 16:50 of the second period, the Bulls scored what may have been the prettiest goal of the year. Jordan Morrison controlled the puck in the center ice and found a streaking Brett Findlay charging for the blue line. The pass ended up in Findlay’s gut and when he was able to pull it out with his hand and place it on the ground, he was already being covered heavily by a Condors defender. Out of the corner of his eye Findlay saw Tyler Gron trailing and hit him with a pinpoint pass and Gron was able get it in the goal for his third goal in two days and give the Bulls a 2-1 lead. The shots were all tied up at 18 after two and the Bulls had to be feeling good going into the locker room.

Coming out on the ice in the third, the Bulls looked a little sluggish and it was obvious in the first 5 minutes that they weren’t ready to come out and play. The Condors Wes Cunningham took a shot from the point at 2:14 that was tipped in by Ryan Watson and tied that game at 2. On a breakaway seconds later, Joel Broda was able to beat Besko with a nice shot under his glove that gave the Condors the 3-2 lead. Thirty-three seconds later after Tyler Gron was called for high sticking, Broda scored his second goal of the night off of a nice face off win from Matt Thurber and took a wicked shot through traffic and made it 4-2. The Condors then added an empty netter with less than 30 seconds to go and made it a final of 5-2.

The Bulls are now 2-10-1-0 when giving up the first goal of the game and are now 1-7 at home. Dean Ouellet who had owned the Condors going into this game (he’s scored 8 goals in 11 games) was held scoreless and only took one shot on goal.

The Bulls look to turn it around on Friday when they head to Utah to take on the Grizzlies.

Bulls pick the Condors apart, win 5-1

Published on by kahlilnajar7Leave a comment

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By Kahlil Najar

The San Francisco Bulls’ (5-10-1-1) easily handled the Bakersfield Condors (3-12-0-1) and got themselves back in the win column with an easy 5-1 win.  Tyler Gron led the Bulls as he scored twice and had an assist and Brett Findlay, Dylan King and Dean Ouellet each contributed with a goal of their own. Tyler Beskorowany was great in net as he stopped 27 of 28 shots.

The Bulls hadn’t scored a goal in a week until Dean Ouellet took a shot from the left faceoff dot to beat Condor netminder Chet Pickard for a 1-0 lead in the first. The Condors tied it up 8:53 into the second when Defenseman Chris Collins split two defenders and got the puck past Besko and make it 1-1. The Bulls then scored four unanswered goals to seal the victory. Tyler Gron went a coast-to-coast and gave the Bulls a 2-1 lead.

Dylan King and Brett Findlay scored for the Bulls in the third and Gron sealed the win with his second goal of the game with a little less than four minutes left.

The Bulls return home tomorrow to face the Condors again. Wednesday night is also the first ever bobblehead giveaway for the Bulls and they’re giving away a miniature Pat Curcio statuette to the first 1,000 people.

Bulls open at home with a win, beat Condors 2-1 but lose Mitchell to injury

Published on by kahlilnajar7Leave a comment

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by Kahlil Najar

SAN FRANCISCO –

The San Francisco Bulls (3-5-1-0) opened up the 2013 season at home with 2-1 victory against the win-less Bakersfield Condors (0-7-0-1). Dean Ouellet and Kyle Bigos scored for the Bulls and Tyler Beskorowany stopped 34 shots. The win snapped the Bulls four-game losing streak and it was the first meeting for both teams this year. The Bulls have a great history against Bakersfield – they went 7-4-1 against them in the 2012 campaign.

On the win Head Coach Pat Curcio said,”I think this team, if we can get our power play a little more effective we can score more goals. If we can do things consistently the right way we can get more wins. We worked hard and trying to be as humble as I can, we had three breakaways and that could have been four or five to one. Their goalie was tremendous.”

Rookie standout Dale Mitchell sustained a strained back and was pulled out of the game with four minutes left in the game. The loss of Mitchell is huge as he was one of the key players that Head Coach Pat Curcio called out as one of the bright new stars on the team.

“He tweaked his back from what we saw and we’re sending him to the hospital to find out a little more,” said Curcio.

After a few minutes of both teams trying to figure each other out the Bulls were able to get on the board first on a nice outlet pass from Dylan King to Dean Ouellet who took a nice backhand shot from between the face-off circles and beat Condor goalie Andy Chiodo low glove side to give the Bulls a 1-0 lead. After the Bulls first goal, the Condors started launching shots at Beskorowany and at the end of the first period the shots on goal were 15-13 in favor of the Bulls.

After less than two minutes into the second period,  Kyle Bigos scored on a blast from the blue line to beat Chiodo and bring the lead up to 2-0. As time was running out on a Bulls penalty, the Condors notched their first goal of the game from Defenseman Wes Cunningham who beat Beskorowany in front of the goal and cut the lead to one.

The third period started with both teams tied with 26 shots a piece and both teams not really liking each other. With 11:48 left in the game, the Bulls Chris Crane and the Condors Wes Cunningham dropped the gloves and let the fists fly putting both teams on the ice with four skaters each. Neither team scored but it underlined what could be a great series for this coming year between both teams. A minutes later on a breakaway, Dale Mitchell suffered his back strain and was taken out of the game. With a minute left, the Condors pulled Chiodo but were unable to get the equalizer and the Bulls secured the victory.

Beskorowany commented on the defense towards the end of the game, “They blocked a lot of shots especially in the last minute thirty-five. They made my night a lot easier.”

On his goal Ouellet said “Brace chipped it to me from our own zone and I thought about passing it but i put it on the goal and luckily it went it. I was looking for the deflection maybe but glad that it went in.”

The Bulls head back out on the road and face the fourth place Stockton Thunder on Monday the 11th at 5pm PST.

Bulls lose to Condors 4-3, winless in preseason

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By Kahlil Najar

BAKERSFIELD – In their final preseason game, the San Francisco Bulls lost to the Bakersfield Condors, 4-3. Jordan Morrison, Brett Parnham, and Josh Kidd had goals for the Bulls and J.P. Anderson was able to turn away 28 shots.

The Condors got on the board first with a goal from Gary Steffes at 5:35.The Bulls answered back as Jordan Morrison scored his first goal of the preseason on a nice tip-in play with assists going to Rowe and Belan. Parham contributed his goal of the night when he beat Bunz stick-side with 10:21 gone in the first and made it a 2-1 Bulls lead. Not to be outdone the Condors scored less than two minutes later on a Brett Lutes goal to tie it up at 2-2 at the end of 20 minutes.

Forty seconds into the second period, Nicholas Tremblay gave Bakersfield the lead with an unassisted goal bringing the score to 3-2. After some roughhousing on both sides, the Bulls Josh Kidd tied the game on a liner from the blue line for a score of 3-3. With just over three minutes remaining, Tyler Brenner  scored the game winner with a little over three minutes left in the second to make it a final score of 4-3.

The regular season begins next weekend on October 18 in Alaska, where the Bulls will take on the Aces for the first of a two-game set.

Late goal sinks the Bulls, Condors win 3-2

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By Kahlil Najar

SAN FRANCISCO –

The San Francisco Bulls started off their second year in the ECHL with a tough preseason loss against the Bakersfield Condors 3-2. The Condors scored the their third and deciding goal with less than 30 seconds left when Gary Steffes put a rebound in after a tilt-a-whirl shot from Nick Wheeler was stopped by J.P. Anderson.

“You try to do everything you can to end up winning but you can’t. We made a lot of mistakes and so did they but we’re just going to learn from it.” said Head Coach Pat Curcio on tonight’s loss. “We wanted to give some of the young guys a chance and it’s a process and that’s the way it goes. You start slow.”

Returning players Dylan King and Kris Belan scored for the Bulls and OHL alum J.P. Anderson was between the pipes and was able to turn away 30 shots against an active Condor offense.

Defenseman Dylan King got the Bulls on the board first when he received a nice pass from Christian Ouellet from behind the next and he was able to beat Condor’s goalie Tyler Bunz top shelf. A little over 30 seconds later, Kris Belan was able to get a nice shot past Bunz from in between the circles in the Condors zone and make it a 2-0 Bulls lead. The Condor’s answered back with two consecutive goals in the second by Daniel Sobotka and Blair Maccaulay to tie the game at two a piece. The second goal being a short-handed masterpiece by the Condors stellar penalty kill line. The Condors sealed the victory with a nice rebound goal by Gary Steffes who shoved the puck under the sprawling Anderson.

The Bulls have a 22 man roster and a lot of them are young guys trying to earn a shot on the team. On putting the young players in the game, Curcio said “We want to see what their abilities are and who can do what.” Curcio continued and called out the play of Right Winger Dale Mitchell and said that he was” very good tonight. He’s going to be a good player for us.”

Also on the roster tonight was Anthony Taylor who earned a spot on the roster after wowing Curico and the Bulls staff at last month’s Open Tryout’s at the Cow Palace. “It was a great experience and it was very good hockey. I really liked the fans, they seemed really cool” said Taylor on stepping onto the Cow Palace ice for an official game. Curcio commented on Taylor’s and gave us a look into his future, “I thought he’s done a good job through training camp. We’re going to get him assigned to a Southern Professional team or Central League team where he can get his feet wet. He’s a young player and if he does well, we’ll give him another opportunity.”

The Bulls return to action on Saturday to host the Stockton Thunder at 7:30 pm at the Cow Palace.