Bulls Look To Bounce Back Against Bakersfield: Game Preview
San Francisco Bulls vs Idaho Steelheads, January 10, 2013 – Photo Courtesy of Mike Tkacheff, San Francisco Bulls Homepage
The San Francisco Bulls host the Bakersfield Condors in a Sunday matinee at the Cow Palace. The Bulls (13-18-5) are coming off a two to one loss at the hands of the Idaho Steelheads on Thursday and look to bounce back with a victory to finish their home stand with a winning record. The Condors (10-25-3) on the other hand come into today’s game with their offense clicking as they just scored 11 goals in two games as they defeated Idaho five to zero and six to two on Friday and Saturday, respectively. The Bulls could be in for a fight if the Condors bring their offensive momentum to today’s contest.
The Bulls played a relatively strong game against the Idaho Steelheads, but they just came up against a hot goalie in Tyler Beskorowany as he saved 29 of 30 shots on the net. Peter Sivak scored his 14th goal of the season late in the 1st period to give him his 10th point in his last 11 games. Sivak looks to stay hot, but his teammate Dean Ouellet was held to just one shot against Idaho. The Bulls leading scorer needs to produce if the Bulls expect to string together wins. The bright spot going into today’s game is the Bulls penalty kill as they have killed off seven of the last eight opponents’ power plays. The Bulls still have a tendency to take too many penalties, but the penalty kill unit has been able to minimize the damage done by opposing teams. The Bulls are five and two against the Condors on the season. Bulls defenseman Scott Langdon was suspended for two games by the ECHL for his hit on Mathieu Tousignant on Thursday.
The Condors due to a weird scheduling quirk have played their last six games against Idaho Steelheads. In that time they have gone three and three, including their wins on Friday and Saturday. The Condors currently have the worst record in the league with only 23 points on the season, but they are coming off back to back wins against Idaho. The offense put up 11 goals in the last two games combined, but seven come off the power play. The player to watch on offense is center Nicolas Tremblay, who had total of five points in the last two games.
Bakersfield is the worst team in the league in record, goals for, and goals against. They have also played much better as of late. So depending on which Condors team shows up today could be telling how much of a fight the Bulls are in for.The game could come down to the special teams as the stout Bulls penalty kill takes on a red hot Condors power play. The Bulls ability to stay out of the box to limit the power play opportunities will be vital in keeping the Condors off the board.