Barracuda News & Discussion VII

[Star Platinum]

Tell me what it's like to watch a team that can score goals

 

[Hobocop]

Bakersfield with a LONG stretch of possession in our zone and then out of nowhere a stretch pass from Furlong hits Houle for a breakaway and goal.

We are all over these guys. Shots are 29-12 with five minutes left in the second.

 

[Hobocop]

Bakersfield do get one late on a 4 on 4. Refs seem content to just call coincidentals for any post whistle stuff instead of doing any actual officiating. 4-2 is your score after two.

 

[LadyStanley]

Warmups aren’t far off and Justin Bailey is on the bench in street clothes taping his stick. Guess he might be scratched?

Nah. Some guys just want to experience the space before warmups. Guys can dress quickly, if they want to.

 

[Hobocop]

Perreault spears Vincent, five and a game with about five minutes left. Still 4-2.

 

[Hobocop]

Houle comes out of the box and picks up an empty netter. 5-2.

 

[Hobocop]

Man, that felt good. Where was this when we played them previously?

Two goals each for Houle and Poturalski (Poturalski also had an assist), two assists for Bordeleau and Bailey, one goal and one assist for Robins. Tristen Robins is really coming alive in the second half of the season. Donavan Houle is continuing to impress. He's been my surprise forward of the year.

That first shift was a disaster and after that we were just too much for them. First period we were dominant. Third period they gave us a couple scares, but never felt like we were in that much danger of losing.

Bystedt took a misconduct (a coincidental misconduct, of course) in the third for what seemed like minor roughhousing. That'll get him some extra PIMs.

I'm going to harp on the refereeing again because it was genuinely pretty bad. Not even talking about bias. Already mentioned their love of coincidentals. The spearing call was legit, right off the faceoff Perreault blatantly speared Vincent. During that five minute penalty the referee blew the whistle and was going to call Bakersfield for too many men until the linesman pointed out that they'd pulled their goalie. It was that kind of night.

Anthony Vincent is almost too good of a pest. Every team we play seems to want to hurt him. He's fine after getting speared, but you almost watch him during every shift to see if someone's going to attempt a cheapshot on him.

It's funny you can even see it from Bakersfield's own highlight package: They're just genuinely not a very likeable team.

 

[Original22]

...

Anthony Vincent is almost too good of a pest. Every team we play seems to want to hurt him. He's fine after getting speared, but you almost watch him during every shift to see if someone's going to attempt a cheapshot on him.

...

I took a buddy to his first game and while pointing out the players to watch during warmups, I told him to watch Vincent because at some point in the game someone on the Condors is going to try to kill him

 

[Original22]

Still trying to figure out what the Bakersfield coach was thinking pulling Delia right before our Houle's penalty expired with about five minutes left in the game and we were about to start our extended powerplay. Just poor coaching there.

 

[Hobocop]

Still trying to figure out what the Bakersfield coach was thinking pulling Delia right before our Houle's penalty expired with about five minutes left in the game and we were about to start our extended powerplay. Just poor coaching there.

The only thing I could think was that their coach figured it was still 4 on 4 for a minute and this would be their last opportunity to have a man advantage via pulling the goalie, because that five minute major was then going to leave them shorthanded for almost the remainder of regulation.

Not sure I would've done it, but I don't think there's a good strategy for that situation.

 

[LadyStanley]

 

[Hobocop]

Exact same as yesterday, but with Dell in net.

 

[Hobocop]

Coe scores! 1-0 Cuda. He just found a soft spot in the defense and puts home a one-timer. Assists to Keane and Carlsson.

End of the first. Good that we have the lead, but as far as that period goes? Yuck. Execution was not good. Lot of passes into skates, lot of getting pinned into our own zone. Condors had 18 shots on goal that period.

 

[Hobocop]

Barracuda fail to clear the puck and Grubbe scores to tie the game up. We just look out of sorts today.

 

[Hobocop]

Anthony Vincent scores! Weird angle shot with a ton of traffic in front of the net. 2-1 Barracuda.

First time Vincent has found the net since 10/25, the sixth game of the season.



---

And then, Scott Sabourin slaps one from the blue line that frankly Rodrigue should've had. 3-1 Barracuda. Two goals in 42 seconds.

 

[Hobocop]

Cardwell skates the puck straight down the ice and puts it past Rodrigue to make it 4-1.

So we've got goals from Coe, Vincent, Sabourin and Cardwell- all of the forwards who haven't been finding the net lately.

Bakersfield starting to get salty.

 

[Hobocop]

Cameron Wright whiffs on a shot, but the puck drifts back to Connor Carrick, who puts it past Dell. Dell basically got faked out by Wright and had no chance there. 4-2 at the end of the second.

Barracuda really haven't looked amazing, but they score three goals this period and are in good position. Shot count is crazy. 36-25 in favor of the Condors.

 

[Hobocop]

Wright launches one that deflected off something and in, 4-3 with 13 minutes left.

Dell then makes an impressive save going to his left to rob Petrov. Condors are threatening.



--

And, tie game. Condors have all the momentum right now. McCarthy calls time and he is not happy.

 

[Hobocop]

We're headed to OT.

Bakersfield was the better team all night anyway, but that third period performance from us was pretty woeful. Not going to close out any games that way.

 

[Hobocop]

Carrick scores after Dell makes a save, but none of us can locate the puck.

Almost sucks that we were up 3 in that game, because giving up that lead was shameful. 5-4 Condors win. They put 51 shots on us. Barracuda just get the OT point.

 

[Hobocop]

Hey, so I just watched this team get outplayed AND blow a 3-goal lead AND get beaten in overtime on a trashy goal. Was as fun as it sounds. Defense was scrambly. We looked tired. Nollenberger mentioned the team got into Bakersfield at 2:30 AM, which makes me question what the purpose of these home-and-home weekends against Bakersfield is. It's not much of an excuse, since he also mentioned the team bus was right behind the Condors' bus most of the way down the freeway.

This team has this awful habit of getting leads and then letting opponents back into games. Usually we pull it out, tonight this happened. McCarthy was furious when the game got tied up. I'd hope this is a wakeup call for them. There's just not much excuse for the way we let our foot off the gas so frequently.

If there's one positive to take from it, it's our goalscorers, who haven't found the net too often this season. Coe and Vincent hadn't scored since October. Cardwell hadn't scored in his past nine games. I forgot that Sabourin scored during the Henderson series in December, because his last goal before that was in November.

It'd be great if Cardwell in particular got going, since he only has three goals on the season despite the fact he leads the team in shots on goal now.

Cuda are four points behind Calgary with two games in hand, and the Wranglers are finally on a losing streak. They've lost three straight, the Colorado Eagles destroyed them tonight 7-2. We're @ Abbotsford next weekend.