The Bakersfield Condors concluded the 2024 portion of their season schedule with a split of weekend AHL games, a 4-3 home loss to Coachella Valley on Friday night and a rousing 5-3 road victory at San Diego on Saturday night.
Friday night, the Condors and Firebirds were tied 2-2 after the first period, but Coachella Valley doubled the lead, including Brandon Biro's power-play goal 16:48, 4-2 after two periods. Coachella Valley's other goals were scored by Lleyton Roed, Ben Meyers and Nikolas Brouillard.
The Condors scored the lone goal of the third period on Connor Carrick's third goal of the season, but it came with 33 seconds left in the game. Bakersfield's goal scorers in the first period were Matt Savoie and Phil Kemp.
Olivier Rodrigue stopped 31 of 35 shots for the Condors while Nikke Kokko made 20 saves on 23 shots by Bakersfield.
Saturday turned out to be a chance for Bakersfield to exact some revenge on San Diego, a team that had rallied from big deficits to make things tough on the Condors. Bakersfield scored the first two goals of the game on Carrick's fourth of the year and Lane Pederson's third.
San Diego took the lead after the second period on three goals, scored by Jan Mysak, Nathan Gaucher and Sam Colangelo.
But the Gulls' 3-2 lead was wiped out by three Condors goals in the third period, including Pederson's second goal of the game to put the game away. Drake Caggiula and Seth Griffith each scored a power-play goal.
Matt Savoie had three assists, including on both of Pederson's goals and Griffith's game-winning goal. Other multi-point games were turned in by Griffith, who now has nine goals and had his 13th assist of the season on Caggiula's tally. Pederson also assisted on Carrick's goal. Cam Dineen had two assists and Caggiula had a goal and an assist.
Bakersfield used both Rodrigue, who got the win, and Collin Delia, who had gotten the start, in goal. Combined, the duo stopped 15 of 18 shots with Dalia giving up all three Gulls goals.
Bakersfield finished with 26 shots on San Diego goalie Vyacheslav Buteyets.
The Condors, who are now 12-11-3-1 in 27 games, have 28 points, good enough for eighth place in the 10-team Pacific Division. They are one point behind seventh-place Abbotsford.
Bakersfield plays a home-and-home series with the Henderson Silver Knights to start 2025. The Condors will host Friday's 7 p.m. game and the teams will play at 5 p.m. in Henderson, Nev.