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The Bakersfield Condors hosted a few thousand local schoolchildren for their annual Student Field Trip/Education Day game Tuesday morning at Dignity Health Arena.
Playing a key Pacific Division game against the Colorado Eagles, Bakersfield overcame a third-period collapse, tied it with 1 minute, 16 seconds left and, after overtime didn’t settle it, finally won on Isaac Howard’s shootout goal for a 5-4 victory.
The result gave students who were able to stay to the end good reason to wear out the plastic hand clapper given to each young fan upon entering the arena.
“My favorite part was the game,” said one young fan who was part of the Sierra Vista Elementary group from Arvin.
A few boys from Wonderful College Prep Academy of Delano said it was their first time in the arena and first hockey game. They were amazed at how fast the players were. Most liked the music, the food and the chance to cheer for Bakersfield’s team. The atmosphere was good enough that if given another opportunity to see the Condors, they agreed it would a fun time again.
Elementary, junior and high schools throughout Kern County, from all over Bakersfield to cities pretty far from the downtown arena, such as Tehachapi, Lost Hills (another WCPA location), Taft, McFarland and Kernville, were present.
In the early going the Condors gave the crowd, many of whom were new to live hockey, plenty to cheer for with a three-goal first period. James Hamblin scored 3:29 into the game on assists by Seth Griffith and Cam Dineen. Colorado tied it a little more than three minutes later and there were boos heard to express disappointment. But Howard scored to make it 2-1 and Quinn Huston’s 25th goal, which ended a personal 15-game goal-scoring drought, came 90 seconds later.
The teams were scoreless in the second period, which included Bakersfield being unable to capitalize on a 5-on-3 advantage, but the schoolchildren didn’t seem to mind with the many ways the Condors kept the kids entertained. The Condors provided education-focused math, space and geography trivia, a segment on what the Zamboni does, and basic hockey trivia.
During the first intermission, Condors public address announcer Mike Hart did a question-and-answer segment with forward Matvey Petrov, who is from Russia, and defenseman Luke Prokop from Canada.
Prokop said math was his favorite school subject — “I always liked to work with numbers,” he said — and that's something he still uses today while playing hockey. He talked about the importance of on-ice teamwork, similar to class group projects.
Petrov was interested in geography and then provided a very pro-Condors answer when asked about any advice he’d give to the young fans in attendance.
“If you want to grow up to be a hockey player, you should watch every Condors game and learn to play hockey,” he said.
Because the children were on a time limit for the field trip and with travel time back to school counted in, many kids were lined up in the concourse ready to file out of the arena and back to their buses when the game took a decidedly wild turn in the third period.
The visiting Eagles scored three goals in a three-minute span to take a 4-3 lead, the last of which came on a power play.
Bakersfield pulled goaltender Matt Tompkins in the game’s final minutes to get an extra attacker. Sam Poulin finally shoved a puck past Colorado goalie Trent Miner off a rebound to tie the game at 4.
Colorado outshot Bakersfield 5-2 in the 3-on-3 overtime, but the shootout goals went to Poulin and Howard and Colorado’s Ivan Ivan scored between misses by Tristen Nielsen and Danil Gushchin. Bakersfield’s Hutson had a shootout miss.
The two points for Bakersfield were welcomed after earning only three of a possible eight on a four-game road trip last week. The Condors, now 29-17-8, have 67 points and are again alone in third place, one ahead of fourth-place San Jose. The Eagles, meanwhile, got a point Tuesday and it was enough to move into a first-place tie with the Ontario Reign. Both have 72 points.
Bakersfield will now host Tucson for two 7 p.m. games on Friday and Saturday.
Continue reading...
Playing a key Pacific Division game against the Colorado Eagles, Bakersfield overcame a third-period collapse, tied it with 1 minute, 16 seconds left and, after overtime didn’t settle it, finally won on Isaac Howard’s shootout goal for a 5-4 victory.
The result gave students who were able to stay to the end good reason to wear out the plastic hand clapper given to each young fan upon entering the arena.
“My favorite part was the game,” said one young fan who was part of the Sierra Vista Elementary group from Arvin.
A few boys from Wonderful College Prep Academy of Delano said it was their first time in the arena and first hockey game. They were amazed at how fast the players were. Most liked the music, the food and the chance to cheer for Bakersfield’s team. The atmosphere was good enough that if given another opportunity to see the Condors, they agreed it would a fun time again.
Elementary, junior and high schools throughout Kern County, from all over Bakersfield to cities pretty far from the downtown arena, such as Tehachapi, Lost Hills (another WCPA location), Taft, McFarland and Kernville, were present.
In the early going the Condors gave the crowd, many of whom were new to live hockey, plenty to cheer for with a three-goal first period. James Hamblin scored 3:29 into the game on assists by Seth Griffith and Cam Dineen. Colorado tied it a little more than three minutes later and there were boos heard to express disappointment. But Howard scored to make it 2-1 and Quinn Huston’s 25th goal, which ended a personal 15-game goal-scoring drought, came 90 seconds later.
The teams were scoreless in the second period, which included Bakersfield being unable to capitalize on a 5-on-3 advantage, but the schoolchildren didn’t seem to mind with the many ways the Condors kept the kids entertained. The Condors provided education-focused math, space and geography trivia, a segment on what the Zamboni does, and basic hockey trivia.
During the first intermission, Condors public address announcer Mike Hart did a question-and-answer segment with forward Matvey Petrov, who is from Russia, and defenseman Luke Prokop from Canada.
Prokop said math was his favorite school subject — “I always liked to work with numbers,” he said — and that's something he still uses today while playing hockey. He talked about the importance of on-ice teamwork, similar to class group projects.
Petrov was interested in geography and then provided a very pro-Condors answer when asked about any advice he’d give to the young fans in attendance.
“If you want to grow up to be a hockey player, you should watch every Condors game and learn to play hockey,” he said.
Because the children were on a time limit for the field trip and with travel time back to school counted in, many kids were lined up in the concourse ready to file out of the arena and back to their buses when the game took a decidedly wild turn in the third period.
The visiting Eagles scored three goals in a three-minute span to take a 4-3 lead, the last of which came on a power play.
Bakersfield pulled goaltender Matt Tompkins in the game’s final minutes to get an extra attacker. Sam Poulin finally shoved a puck past Colorado goalie Trent Miner off a rebound to tie the game at 4.
Colorado outshot Bakersfield 5-2 in the 3-on-3 overtime, but the shootout goals went to Poulin and Howard and Colorado’s Ivan Ivan scored between misses by Tristen Nielsen and Danil Gushchin. Bakersfield’s Hutson had a shootout miss.
The two points for Bakersfield were welcomed after earning only three of a possible eight on a four-game road trip last week. The Condors, now 29-17-8, have 67 points and are again alone in third place, one ahead of fourth-place San Jose. The Eagles, meanwhile, got a point Tuesday and it was enough to move into a first-place tie with the Ontario Reign. Both have 72 points.
Bakersfield will now host Tucson for two 7 p.m. games on Friday and Saturday.
Continue reading...
