PREVIEW: Gulls Open Four-Game Homestand Against Rival Condors On Heroes Night
Nov 5, 2021By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
It's a battle of the birds, and this one delivers plenty of bad blood.
San Diego welcomes the rival Bakersfield Condors to Pechanga Arena San Diego on the team's Heroes Night honoring frontline workers tonight at 7 p.m. PT (TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
“We’re lucky we’re doing hockey and I always remind the guys that we’re privileged and we’re also very lucky that we’re not dealing with life and death situations,” Gulls head coach Joel Bouchard said. “We’ve got to take this seriously, but again, I think the Gulls organization and the city of San Diego are doing such a good job to reward and to acknowledge the people that have been fighting for our health.”
The fans will witness one of the league’s best rivalries, as San Diego and Bakersfield open a six-game regular-season series.
The Gulls carry an all-time regular-season record of 30-20-1-2 against the Condors, with a 16-9-0-1 record at home. In 2020-21, the Gulls won their fourth consecutive season series against the Condors 5-3-0-0.
However, the Gulls did not fare so well against their rivals in the 2021 Pacific Division Semifinals. In a best-of-three game postseason series, Bakersfield eliminated San Diego in dramatic fashion, with a 2-1 overtime win in the deciding Game 3 matchup.
San Diego is in a very different position from last year’s postseason and, more importantly, is in the best place it has been this season. The Gulls earned their first win last weekend as they split a weekend series against the Tucson Roadrunners.
“That comes with a little bit more confidence, kind of getting to know each other a little bit more, getting to know the system so you start to get a little bit more confidence. ” Gulls forward Bryce Kindopp said. “Once you play good in the d-zone - be a little bit physical, have a good stick - it creates some offense so I think we had that going last weekend.”
The Gulls netted nine goals over the course of the two games, nearly doubling the total number of goals they scored in the prior three games. Moreover, 11 different players chipped in on the offense in Friday’s 5-1 victory, and nine players did so in Saturday’s 6-4 loss.
“To be honest, we didn’t work that much on the offense last week,” Bouchard said. “It was more about defending. We were better defensively so you spend more time in the o-zone and you have more of a chance with scoring, it’s just logic. Our defending is not where it should be, it was better last weekend.”
Alex Limoges started the scoring on Friday, eventually putting two pucks in the back of the net by the end of Friday's win. Limoges currently leads the team with three goals.
Jacob Perreault took the overall scoring lead for the Gulls after contributing four points (1-3=4) over the two games, bringing his total up to 2-4=6 points. Danny O’Regan and Bryce Kindopp are close behind as they each earned three points over the weekend (0-3=3 and 1-2=3, respectively) for season tallies of four points.
“Once the team kind of starts ramping up and getting better and we start pushing ourselves, I think that helps your individual game,” Kindopp said. “It’s been a really good week so far and the last couple of weeks we’ve been building. We’re pushing each other and I think when the team starts getting better, as a player you start getting better individually for sure.”
The Gulls power play stayed hot, scoring three times over the two-game set with Tucson. San Diego has converted on the man-advantage in five games straight and its overall power play ranks first in the AHL with a 35% success rate.
“You’re on the power play to score goals and everybody that’s out there is really skilled and can do that,” Kindopp said. “Then…you follow the systems and put your skill set to work and it works out.”
The Gulls will need this surge of well-rounded offense to stymie Bakersfield’s leading scorers Seth Griffith and Adam Cracknell, who both sit top-10 in the AHL with 3-6=9 points each.
Griffith scored a point in each of his games since the start of the season and established a league-leading seven-game point streak. Additionally, he is tied for first in the league in power play points with seven and in power play goals with three.
Cracknell is familiar to Gulls fans, posting 15-13=28 points with a +11 rating and 18 penalty minutes in 32 games with San Diego during the 2018-19 season. He is currently on a three-game point streak and, like his teammate Griffith, has produced on the man-advantage, scoring two power play goals of his own.
The Gulls will also have to keep watch on rookie defenseman Philip Broberg, as he is tied for fourth among all AHL defensemen and leads Bakersfield blueliners in points (0-5=5).
The Condors enter tonight with a 4-3-0-0 record. They dropped their most recent matchup 4-2 in a matinee meeting with the Henderson Silver Knights on October 30. The reigning Pacific Division champions have just one win in their last five games.
“I don’t have a crystal ball to know what it’s going to be this weekend, but we kept pushing this week on structure and identity and culture,” Bouchard said. “It’s not going to happening overnight, you know? Success is not a magic trick, but I do have to say that we are taking strides. We do have some key players missing, but for me, it’s not an excuse for us not to be working on the same page and having a plan going into the weekend. Again, I don’t have a crystal ball, but we took strides last weekend. Let’s see if we can take more strides this weekend.”