Terry Nets Overtime Winner, Glass Backstops Gulls to 3-2 Victory Over Condors
Dec 29, 2018Newcomer Trevor Murphy tied the game late in regulation, Troy Terry scored the overtime winning goal and Jeff Glass earned his first victory for San Diego as the Gulls came back in a 3-2 win over Bakersfield at Rabobank Arena.
San Diego erased a deficit against the Condors for the second time in three days to extended their season-long standings point streak to seven games (5-0-0-2).
"Earlier in the year we’d be in these games and we’d find a way to lose them. Now we’re finding a way to win every night," said Gulls head coach Dallas Eakins. "I think it says a lot about the resiliency of our players. I think that adversity early in the season is paying off now."
The theme following the game was that earlier in the season results were harder to come by and the team wasn't on the right side of the ledger when it came to earning points, let alone wins.
"It obviously felt good to score. I think the other night we didn’t play our best game, and we knew that, and we got a win which is good because it was something we struggled with the first half, finding ways to get wins," said Terry after netting his seocnd game-winning goal this season. "Tonight I think they played good defense but we did some good things. I think we can still be sharper and get pucks in behind them more and try to just create on our end instead of force things. I think we can still just be sharper as a team."
For the second straight game the Condors tallied the first goal of the game to jump out to a 1-0 lead at 7:25 of the opening frame. With Carrick in the penalty box for tripping, the Condors power play, which didn’t earn an opportunity just two nights ago, took advantage as Tyler Benson found Jake Kulevich with a cross-ice pass that split the Gulls penalty kill and all Kulevich had to do was one-time it into a gaping net past Glass from the far circle. For Kulevich, the goal marked the first of his professional career in his 55th game.
Moments later the Gulls would earn a power play of their own, but the full two minutes dissipated without the road club creating a quality scoring chance to even the game.
Glass would keep the deficit at one goal with just under seven minutes remaining as a Condors two-on-one rush turned into David Gust in all alone and his deke to the backhand looked to beat the 33-year old netminder but Glass’ post-to-post push was strong enough to get a solid right pad on the puck to kick it away.
Max Jones netted his ninth goal of the season to even the game at 1-1 with 3:58 remaining in the first period. The 24th overall selection of the 2016 NHL Draft rushed in from center ice, beat a defenseman with a quick inside out move and bulldozed his way to the front of the crease where he knocked in a rebound past Starrett. Jaycob Megna earned the lone assist on the goal to push his point streak to three games, a season high.
After one period of play with the score even at one apiece with the teams also knotted 8-8 in shots.
A lackluster second period came and went as San Diego earned a power play opportunity but failed to convert on a Ryan Stanton tripping minor. The Gulls edged the Condors 9-5 in shots during the middle frame and led 17-13 after 40 minutes of play.
Bakersfield regained their one-goal lead just 4:23 into the third period as Joe Gambardella won a foot race with Keaton Thompson and his breakaway attempt beat Glass high to the blocker side for his team-leading 12th goal of the season.
Near the midway point of the final frame, the Gulls looked to have a shot at tying the game again but a two-on-one rush was denied even an attempt on net as Sam Steel’s pass was denied by Ryan Stanton and San Diego’s comeback was put on hold.
With 3:52 left in regulation, Tyler Vesel took a double-minor penalty for high sticking Gulls newcomer Trevor Murphy. It was Murphy who would make Bakersfield pay as he scored 39 seconds into the first half of the double minor to knot the game at 2-2 with 3:13 remaining with a booming point shot that redirected off a Condors skate and quickly through Starrett. It marked Murphy’s first goal as a Gull in his San Diego debut, and his sixth overall this season.
"We did our homework on (Murphy). Obviously we had seen him play and I talked to a couple other people about him. He came highly recommended," added Eakins. "He was excited to get into the lineup. He was fired up and just an excellent game and what a great way to finish it for him."
Murphy’s power-play goal would force overtime with the score tied at two apiece and the Gulls leading in shots, 27-20.
The three-on-three overtime began with the Gulls dominating possession in the Condors zone. During the second shift, Kalle Kossila and a Condors forward both went awkward into the half wall that saw Kossila immediately leave the ice and head to the locker room.
It would be the Gulls to come back for the second time in three days against the Condors to spoil another lead.
Terry would skate across the blue line and was given space to slash across the zone from right to left to move onto his forehand and rifled a shot through Starrett to score his first career overtime goal 1:24 into the extra session. Terry also added an assist on the Murphy power-play goal to extend his point streak to eight straight games (3-7=10). Simon Benoit earned the primary assist on Terry’s overtime winner, his seventh point of the season (1-6=7).
Chase De Leo also earned an assist on Terry’s goal, pushing his point and assist streak to a career high five games (1-5=6). The point and assist streak match his career high five-game point and assist streak set last season with Manitoba from Mar. 31-Apr. 15, 2018 (1-5=6).
The Gulls will conclude their 2018 calendar year schedule with the second leg of the back-to-back against the San Jose Barracuda at SAP Center (5 p.m.).