PREVIEW: Gulls, Condors Open Weekend Home-And-Home Series
Nov 12, 2021By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls are set to take on the Bakersfield Condors tonight at 7 p.m. PT (TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network) at Pechanga Arena San Diego in the first of a two-game weekend series against their Pacific Division rivals.
$2 Bud Light Night Tickets | Game Notes
The Gulls carry an all-time record of 31-20-1-2 (17-9-0-1 at home) against the Condors, including San Diego's 3-2 shootout win in the first meeting of the season just one week ago.
The Gulls are coming off a dominant 6-3 win over the Henderson Silver Knights in which players exhibited how well they can play both individuals and as a team.
“Yeah, everybody is getting better individually and its less thinking, more we’re not reacting now,” Gulls assistant coach Daniel Jacob said. “We’re dictating the pace more, we’re having more zone time as well. We take care of that puck better as well and it’s those individual habits that are going to bring us some success.”
The adherence to these habits translated into the best start the Gulls put together all season, as they scored four goals in the first period alone. By game’s end, it was clear if the Gulls stick to the structures of play they’ve put into place, they will have success on all levels.
Brayden Tracey scored a goal and earned an assist for the first multi-point game of his career. He enters tonight riding a career-best five-game point streak (2-4=6).
Jacob Perreault also extended his career-high point streak to five games, collecting a power-play goal (and an assist) in Wednesday's win. The right wing leads the Gulls in assists (6) and points (10) and is tied for first in goals (4).
Additionally, both Nikolas Brouillard (1-3=4) and Trevor Carrick (1-3=4) enter tonight with three-game point streaks.
“It’s good and that’s what we want,” Jacob said. “It’s a young team and lots of moving parts and guys coming from all over. From week to week, guys individually are progressing and as a team and it shows during games.”
Additionally, the outing marked other milestones as Axel Andersson earned his first multi-point effort of the season with a goal and an assist (1-1=2) while Greg Pateryn recorded his first point as a Gull (0-1=1).
Vinni Lettieri also had an exceptional performance in his return to the lineup after reassignment from the Anaheim Ducks, scoring twice and adding an assist for 2-1=3 points.
“Yeah, we’re at this point know where we have the structure pretty down pat here so it just comes with the battle, the work ethic, and then things will fall into place if you do that.” Bryce Kindopp said.
San Diego turned the page from that win, focusing its attention on arguably its biggest division rival.
“Bakersfield is a good team, they’ve been together for a long time,” Jacob said. “When you watch their roster, you know there’s not much that has changed from previous years and they’re pp (power play) is good so we want to stay out of the box…They’re well coached, well structured, but again, early on like this, we just want to make sure that we do things right as a whole. So, we’re going to focus on us and making sure we bring that same energy and that same habits from the drop of the puck.”
The Condors are 4-4-0-1 this season and are struggling through a four-game losing streak. They came close to ending the skid on Wednesday falling 5-4 in overtime to the Stockton Heat.
Brad Malone notched two goals and two assists on the night, with the second goal tying the game for Bakersfield.
Seth Griffith enters tonight with a 10-game point streak, tied with Springfield's Scott Perunovich for the longest in the American Hockey League. He leads the Condors in goals (5) and points (13) and is tied for first in assists (8).
“We had a really good first period, a really good start so if we do that against Bakersfield, obviously they’re a really good team, we just kind of have to build off that last game,” Kindopp said. “Play our structure, just do everything right and it should work in our favor.”