Roadrunners give up third-period lead, fall 3-2 to visiting Bakersfield

Despite leading much of the game and out shooting the visiting Bakersfield Condors, two third period goals doomed the Tucson Roadrunners Friday night at home, 3-2.

The Condors (14-20-2-1) scored in the first two minutes and twice in the final frame to get their first win over the Roadrunners (16-19-4-0) this season in the fifth of eight meetings between the teams.

Tucson outshot Bakersfield 37-25.

"I think it’s unfortunate. I think you basically control the game for, I would say,  probably about 50 minutes,” Tucson head coach Steve Potvin said. “You’re in good shape and you lose it. It slips right through our fingers. That’s a tough loss.”

Attendance at Tucson Arena was 4,519 for Harry Potter Night and the crowd was boisterous.

“It was great to have a crowd like that,” Potvin said. "It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get the win in front of them but it was definitely fun playing in front of the fans and we could hear that they had our support and it’s great to have this type of environment.”

Condor right wing Raphael Lavoie scored 1:56 into the game. At 7:20 in the first Bakersfield was awarded a penalty shot but Tucson goalie Ivan Prosvetov stopped Condor left wing Seth Griffith’s attempt.

Last Saturday, the Roadrunners won a shootout in Bakersfield with Prosvetov making two saves. That effort included one against Griffith on what ended up being the game's final shot.

“I know that he’s a good shooter, we just beat them in a shootout in their building and I think he was the last shot guy, who I had stopped, so I got excited when I see he’s coming up there,” Prosvetov said. “So I kinda knew I might be in his head a little bit but he made a good shot but I made a better save."

Tucson forward Laurent Dauphin scored a power play goal 15:56 into the first, assisted by center Jean-Sebastien Dea and forward Nathan Smith. It’s was third goal of the weekend that the trio connected on.

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“I think we’ve been playing really good hockey,” Dea said. “We’re just trying to do our job, take care of defense and usually offense comes naturally for us.”

Smith scored his third goal in as many nights 13:36 into the second. Defenseman Cam Dineen and Dauphin got the assists.

Tucson was 1-for-3 on the power play while Bakersfield didn’t have any. Tucson, which came into the weekend by some metrics the most penalized team in the AHL this season, only had two penalties – one for roughing and another for fighting by center Curtis Douglas.

“The less penalties are definitely contributing to helping us play the brand of hockey we want,” Potvin said. “We want to try and be able to wear teams down but allowing the first goal of the game on the first shot’s tough also.”

At 5:40 in the third, Bakersfield right wing Justin Bailey tied it up at two apiece. Then Condors right wing Ty Tullio scored the game winner 11:24 into the third.

“I thought we had a good game I think at the end mental fatigue, I think that kinda cost us some goals,” Dea said. “It’s no excuse, but it’s the reality with all humans. It’s been a tough travel back. We just gotta look at our mistake and learn from it and get back at it Tuesday.”

Up next for the Roadrunners is a two-game series with the Chicago Wolves (14-18-3-1) starting on Tuesday. The Wolves are the defensing Calder Cup champions and the AHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes. But this season, they're currently last in the AHL's Central Division.

Slap shots

• Tucson’s record against Bakersfield this season dropped to 4-1-0-0 against. The Roadrunners and Condors season series is eight games.