Gulls Look To Rebound Against Condors
Mar 10, 2021The San Diego Gulls (9-6-0-0) and Bakersfield Condors (5-5-0-0) face off for the fifth time this season tonight at Mechanics Bank Arena (6 p.m. PT, TV: AHL TV; Radio: Gulls Audio Network). The Gulls own an all-time record of 193-120-21-10, including an 89-65-12-5 mark on the road. San Diego will look to improve on a difficult start to its road schedule, as the team has one win away from home this season (1-5-0-0).
The Gulls rebound effort will come after a spirited come-from-behind effort fell short in San Jose last night.
After the Barracuda scored three consecutive goals to start the game, San Diego’s Kodie Curran and Sam Carrick each found the back of the net to bring the Gulls within a goal. However, the Barracuda sealed the game in the final minute as their captain Jaycob Megna, the former Gulls captain, shot the puck from his own end into an empty net to make it a 4-2 final.
“Well you know you can talk about the end but I think the start sticks out for me,” said Gulls head coach Kevin Dineen. “They scored early and we’re chasing the game from there. It’s an issue for us this year and that was a quick one. Our first period solidified from there and I liked our push at the end, but the trick is not to put ourselves in that situation.”
An improved start remains a focus for San Diego. The team has surrendered the game's first goal in 12 of their 15 games this season.
“It’s something that has been an issue,” added Dineen on the way the Gulls started games this season. “You don’t want to be the ones chasing the game. So simplify is probably the easiest answer to that.”
San Diego prepares for the second game of their sixth back-to-back set so far this season. The club owns a 4-1-0-0 record in such games.
“That’s the beauty of pro hockey,” said Poturalski, who had two assists in last night’s game. “You get to go right back at it tomorrow. Bakersfield’s a good team, they have a lot of good depth and a lot of older players who have been in the league that are good players. It will be a good test for us and hopefully we’ll be ready to go.”
San Diego and Bakersfield continue an eight-game season series tonight. The Gulls won three of the first four meetings this year, including a sweep of their season-opening back-to-back series (Feb. 5-6). San Diego owns a 28-18-1-2 all-time record against Bakersfield, including a 13-9-1-1 mark on the road.
The Gulls are facing a different Condors team than the one they saw earlier this season. The club is riding a five-game win streak and is now .500 after starting the season 0-5-0-0. They have two shutouts performances and outscored teams by a combined 24-5 margin during this streak.
Cooper Marody leads Bakersfield is scoring (8-5=13) and goals, while Tyler Benson paces the team in assists (7). Stuart Skinner backstopped the team in net for each of their five wins and co-leads the league with two shutouts. The goaltender owns a 1.00 goals-against average (GAA) and a .961 save percentage (SV%) during his five-game win streak.
“[We expect] a good game,” said Dineen. “Yeah, they’ll be ready for sure. They’re at home. They’re playing much better than they did at the earlier year. We’ll certainly have our hands full.”