De Leo Extends Point Streak As Gulls Fall In Bakersfield
Apr 17, 2021The San Diego Gulls saw its two-game win streak end in a 5-1 loss to the Bakersfield Condors at Mechanics Bank Arena. The home teams dominate this season series, as Bakersfield collected its third win on home ice against San Diego this season. The Gulls won all four of their home games against the Condors.
"I think it’s nice to see fans in the building, even if they’re not our fans – that’s a good sign for the state of California," head coach Kevin Dineen said following hte loss. "They’ve got some high offensive talent. You want to be a good road team and I think tonight, our game was not complete. There were some areas that needed to simplify and we didn’t do that."
Ryan McLeod (2-1=3) led Bakersfield offensively as the Condors extended their American Hockey League-leading home point streak to 13 games (12-0-1-0).
Stuart Skinner stopped 22-of-23 shots he saw to record his 14th win of the season, tying Logan Thompson from the Henderson Silver Knights for the most victories in the American Hockey League.
Chase De Leo extended his point streak (5-7=12) to seven games with a goal in the third period. Andrew Poturalski collected his league-leading 24th assist and 31st point in the loss.
Bakersfield struck first as Ryan McLeod found the back of the net 2:08 into the opening frame, circling from behind the net and firing a shot up and over Olle Eriksson Ek’s blocker. The Condors scored the first goal in six of the seven matchups between the clubs.
Adam Cracknell extended the Bakersfield lead with his eighth goal of the season at 9:31 of the middle frame. The former Gull deflected a point shot from Ryan Stanton past Eriksson Ek to double the Condors advantage.
Stanton recorded his second multi-point game with a season after grabbing an assist on the goal. Both games are against San Diego.
San Diego failed to convert on its two power-play chances in the middle frame, and finished the night without a man-advantage goal. The Gulls entered tonight with five power-play goals in their last five games.
"I think our power play was like the ice tonight – it was chippy, it was sloppy and there wasn’t a lot of flow to it," Dineen said. "Pretty obvious just watching it, the power play wasn’t clicking."
Chase De Leo brought San Diego within one, tallying his team-leading 12th goal of the season at 4:29 of the third period.
Poturalski intercepted a pass in his own zone, feeding a pass to a streaking De Leo as he flew through the neutral zone. De Leo fought off a defender and made a move that put the puck past Condors netminder Stuart Skinner, cutting the lead to 2-1.
De Leo currently ranks tied for fifth among AHL goal scorers and co-leads the Gulls with Sam Carrick.
Bakersfield snuffed out the comeback effort quickly, with McLeod netting his second goal of the game just 37 seconds later to push the Condors lead to two.
Rookie defenseman Michael Kesselring collected his second assist on the goal, earning his first career multi-point performance. The rookie defenseman recorded his first American Hockey League assist and point on McLeod’s first goal of the night.
Luke Esposito extended Bakersfield's lead to three, batting a puck out of the air and past Eriksson Ek for his seventh goal of the season at 7:06 of the period.
Raphael Lavoie extended his point streak to five games, securing the win with an empty-net tally with 4:35 remaining in regulation. The rookie, who picked up an assist earlier in the game, has 5-2=7 points in his first seven AHL games and recorded his first multi-point performance of the season.
Eriksson Ek suffered his fourth consecutive defeat, allowing four goals on 28 shots.
The Gulls will continue their four-game road trip with a back-to-back series against the San Jose Barracuda starting Tuesday, April 20 (6 p.m. PT; TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network) at SAP Center.