It’s not as if the Roadrunners didn’t have their chances; that much the Tucson players and coaching staff can agree on.
But chances alone aren’t enough when facing a team now riding an eight-game win streak.
The Bakersfield Condors turned a scoreless second-period tie into a 2-0 lead over the Roadrunners in the virtual blink of an eye, before holding on for a 3-1 win Saturday at Tucson Arena.
The final tally was the same score by which the Condors (24-15-2-1) won a night earlier, not only giving them the two-game sweep over the Roadrunners (23-13-3-1), but also sending Bakersfield into the All-Star break as the American Hockey League’s hottest team.
“We’ve got to be ready for critical moments. We ran into critical moments tonight. We give up a goal, and shifts after goals are important times. And we weren’t good,” Tucson head coach Jay Varady said of a 23-second stretch that saw Bakersfield take that 2-0 second-period lead.
After John Gambardella opened the scoring with his 18th goal of the season about four and half minutes into the second period, NHL veteran Ryan Spooner followed up with his first for the Condors. Spooner, who last played in the AHL in the 2014-15 season, was sent down prior to the series on a conditioning assignment from the Edmonton Oilers. He made his debut for Bakersfield on Friday night.
Tucson forward Adam Helewka drew the Roadrunners closer less than three minutes later, fielding a pass from defenseman Kyle Capobianco in the zone before slowly making his way toward Bakersfield goaltender Share Starrett. Helewka fired it to the back of the net, bringing the score to 2-1 on his team-high 12th of the year, with Capobianco and Laurent Dauphin credited with assists.
Other than an empty-net goal from Gambardella with a few seconds to play, that three-minute span was all the scoring that the more than 5,000 on hand for the uncommon 3 p.m. start would experience.
“They’re a tight defensive team, and their goalie played well,” Helewka said. “We did play well. I think we outplayed them for the most part.
“But when we get our chances,” he added, “we’ve just got to capitalize on them. That’s the bottom line.”
Over two games, Starrett stopped 61 of the 63 shots he faced, although those are only the official shots on goal. That doesn’t take into account the number of times the Roadrunners fired at Starrett on odd-man rushes and while pressing into the Condors zone, only to see the puck fly high and wide, or elsewhere off-target.
“Sometimes, you know, that’s just hockey. There’s no answer to it. Really it’s just, you just dig a little bit deeper and try to find your spot,” Tucson captain Dakota Mermis said of the idea that the Roadrunners may have outplayed Bakersfield in many respects both nights. “There were moments through the weekend, and a lot them tonight, really, where we controlled the game. We definitely had our chances.”
Tucson was 0 for 6 on the power play Saturday alongside an 0-for-3 effort Friday. In five games against Bakersfield, the Roadrunners are 1 for 24 with the man advantage.
Tucson is 2-2 on its current six-game homestand, with a pair against the Colorado Eagles to come next weekend before the Roadrunners hit the road for the better part of the month of February.
The losses allowed Bakersfield to pass Tucson for second in points in the Pacific Division, although the Roadrunners have played two fewer games and still have the AHL’s fourth-highest win percentage overall.
The weekend series also capped the Roadrunners’ busiest stretch of the season to date; Tucson finished 3-3 while playing six times in nine days heading into the AHL’s All-Star break.
After the break, the Roadrunners play host to Colorado at Tucson Arena for a two-game set Friday and Saturday. The puck drops both nights at 7:05.
