Cooper Marody gathered a rebound that had just bounced off the pads of Gulls goalie Olle Eriksson Ek and snapped a shot past Ek before he could react.
Just like that, San Diego’s hopes for the season’s first two-game winning streak were dashed with a 2-1 overtime loss to the Bakersfield Condors at Pechanga Arena.
The defeat spoiled an excellent effort by Ek, who stopped 32 shots in his fifth start of the season.
Forward Maxim Golod scored his first goal of the season for the Gulls (4-5-1-0) and forward Jacob Perrault picked up on an assist to extend his consecutive games with at least one point to six.
The teams meet again tonight at Bakersfield.
The Condors (5-4-1-1) jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Brad Malone slammed a shot past Ek from point blank range at 10:53 of the first period.
The goal was hardly a work of art but the visitors probably deserved a lead as they finished the opening frame with a 16-5 advantage in shots.
and did an excellent job of limiting San Diego possession in the offensive zone.
The Gulls were whistled for five penalties through two periods but stayed in the game by killing off four Bakersfield power plays.
Ek also made a couple of nice saves to stuff out prime Bakersfield scoring chances in the second period.
The score remained 1-0 Bakersfield until 13:25 of the third period when Golod won a puck battle on the boards before smoothly snapping a shot past Illya Konovalov for his first goal of the season.
The Gulls went 0 for 5 on the power play and had an apparent goal by Buddy Robinson in the third period, but it was disallowed as Vinni Littieri was called for goalie interference.
Following Wednesday night’s 6-3 win over Henderson during which his team played its best hockey of the early season, Gulls coach Joel Bouchard expressed happiness over seeing his players apply good habits picked up in practice.
The Gulls played with energy right from puck drop, had excellent defensive structure, won most of the little puck battles that lead to good scoring chances and pretty much controlled the flow of play all night.
According to Bouchard, those elements were a product of what he has been seeing on the Poway Ice practice rink. A three games in four nights stretch is providing ample opportunity to build on the recent stretch of good play. The team will have another such busy stretch at the end of the month.
“Well, I think the timing is right for us, cause it’s hard to get some momentum when you just play a couple games a week,” coach Joel Bouchard said. “We’ve used that time wisely to prepare. But I think that Wednesday game was a breath of fresh air to the players and the coaching staff to get working on our game and having a plan for the players to be on the ice during games.”
Carter is a freelance writer.
