Condors' power play comes to life in 8-3 win over Reign
| Wednesday, Oct 28 2009 11:16 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Oct 28 2009 11:19 PM
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Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Bakersfield Condors goaltender Timo Pielmeier keeps sight on the puck as a shot by the Ontario Reign bounces of him during the 2nd period of their game Wednesday.
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Bakersfield Condors #4 Sasha Pokulok gets tangled up under Ontario's # 23 Michael Pelech's elbow in the 2nd period of their game Wednesday.
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Bakersfield Condors goaltender Timo Pielmeier looks to make a stop as Ontario's #13 Jon Francisco and Condors # 11 Logan MacMillan get in on the play.
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Bakersfield Condors goaltender Timo Pielmeier dives to make a stop in their game against Ontario Wednesday night.
Henry A. Barrios / The Californian Bakersfield Condors #8 Dan Sexton battles with Ontario's Jon Rheault for the puck in their game Wednesday night.
This one was special.
Mired in a 1-for-22 slump on the power play through the first five games of the season, the Condors found the electricity Wednesday night at Rabobank Arena as they scored five power-play goals en route to an 8-3 thumping of the Ontario Reign.
The Condors scored on their first two power plays then broke open a 4-3 game with four third-period goals -- three on the power play.
The victory lifted the Condors to 4-2 and avenged an 8-2 loss to Ontario on Oct. 17.
"We had a sour taste in our mouth," said captain Shawn Weller, who started the power-play resurgence with a first-period goal and got another in the third period. "They put up eight on us last week."
But it was deja vu early Wednesday night as Ontario, which scored the first goal on the first shot of the game on Oct. 17, did so again when Greg Hogeboom converted a turnover with just 18 seconds gone against Timo Pielmeier.
"Everyone stayed poised and the boys responded well," Weller said. "I think Timo played well right off the bat. He made some big saves for us."
Pielmeier finished with 33 saves, the last Ontario goal coming 1:29 into second period.
But the most impressive numbers on night were the 45 percent efficiency on the power play (5-for-11) and 91 percent success (1-11) on the penalty kill.
"We've been really struggling," Weller said of the power play. "I think special teams is huge for us. I know it's early, but if we can establish we're going to score goals on the power play I think we might be a pretty good team."
So does coach Marty Raymond.
"We've been good five-on-five and felt we could be better on the power play and better on the penalty kill," he said. "We worked on it in practice the last 48 hours and tonight we were great in both aspects."
The Condors chased Ontario goaltender Mike Zacharias 5:43 into the second period then got to Curtis Darling for four goals the pivotal third period.
The Condors started to pull away when MacGregor Sharp redirected in a goal 58 seconds into the third for a 5-3 lead. Then came a power play goal, a crucial penalty kill, and two more power-play goals.
Defenseman Sasha Pokulok scored on a 5-on-3 advantage at 8:47 for a 6-3 lead then the Condors killed off a full 2 minutes of an Ontario two-man advantange to keep the momentum.
Weller scored at 16:50 and defenseman Eric Regan completed the scoring at 17:07.
The power play then came to life with back-to-back goals in the first period -- by Weller at 5:27 and Stephane Goulet at 8:45.
Bakersfield extended its lead to 3-1 just under two minutes later when Andrew Ianiero scored.
Notes
The Condors return to action on Friday night at Rabobank Arena against the Utah Grizzlies then head to Ontario to face the Reign again on Saturday night.
Erik Lizon was a healthy scratch on Wednesday.
