Cool under pressure: Condors win in shootout
| Wednesday, Nov 18 2009 10:43 PM
Last Updated Wednesday, Nov 18 2009 10:52 PM
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Felix Adamo / The Californian Bakersfield's Andrew Ianiero skates over the top of a fallen Mike Howe of Ontario in the first period at Rabobank
Felix Adamo / The Californian Ontario goalie Curtis Darling stands ready as Bakersfield's Logan MacMillian drives to the goal late in the first period. MacMillian ended up crashing into Darling and the net, missing the goal. Ontario skater on the right is Shawn Germain.
The Bakersfield misfires were numerous for 65 minutes Wednesday at Rabobank Arena, but the Condors were dead-on when the game against the Ontario Reign came down to a skills competition.
The first three Bakersfield skaters --Stephane Goulet, Dan Sexton and MacGregor Sharp -- all scored and goaltender Timo Pielmeier shut down three Ontario skaters as the Condors won 4-3 in a shootout.
It was the first shootout game of the season for the Condors (9-6-0), who remain atop the ECHL Pacific Division.
"We certainly have some firepower, some depth on the bench as far as guys with skills," Condors coach Marty Raymond said. "We do have skills and guys who can score goals. We do this every day (in practice) so we now we have some good snipers. And our goaltending is also very solid in the shootout."
Two players who have struggled this year, Goulet and Mathieu Aubin, had solid games.
Goulet, who did not make the trip to Alaska for two games last weekend, had a pair of assists in addition to his shootout goal. Aubin, who missed the last seven games of the season, scored his first goal and had an assist.
"I was getting ready in the gym when I was injured and looking forward to coming back strong and I think that's what happened today and I'm really excited about it," Aubin said.
Overall, it was a rather sloppy game for the Condors, who committed several turnovers and took several bad penalties, including spending 3:56 of the overtime period killing penalties.
"The good news is we got the win and two points," Raymond said. "There's going to be games like that. We complicated our lives at times but I like the fact that we stuck to the process.
"We were resilient and I thought our penalty kill was great down the stretch. We made some big plans and even though there were breakdowns we came though."
Defenseman Eric Regan brought the crowd of 4,862, comprised mostly of schoolchildren for a special 10:30 a.m. game, to life 10:22 into the first period when his low wrister found its way past Curtis Darling.
Seventeen seconds later it got quiet as Ontario's Michael Pelech tied the game. The Reign took a 2-1 lead at 16:12 when Peter Lenes finished a 2-on-1 break for a short-handed goal.
Bakersfield tied the game 3:50 into the second period on a power-play goal by Aubin then went up 3-2 at 13:06 on a short-hander by Adam Naglich, his first goal as a pro.
The Condors looked to have a chance to put the game out of reach in the third period with an extended early power play, but Bakersfield penalties turned a five-minute span into a disjointed mishmash of 4-on-4, 3-on-3 and brief power plays.
Bakersfield's third minor in a span of 5:06 led to the tying power-play goal by Ontario's Tony Voce at 6:53.
Notes
Rookie MacGregor Sharp was called up to the Anaheim Ducks after Wednesday's game and is expected to play tonight when the Ducks host Tampa Bay. "He's pumped," Condors coach Marty Raymond said. "That's good for our kids, too. It shows what can happen."
Physical left-wing Ryan Donally is heading from San Antonio in the American Hockey League to Bakersfield as the Ducks have apparently pulled all their players of out of San Antonio as three others were assigned to Toronto in the AHL.
Defenseman Raymond Eichenlaub, who came off the 21-day IR to play on Wednesday, was sent head-first into the boards one minute into the third period. Raymond said he may have suffered broken ribs and was going to have x-rays.
