Bakersfield steals one from the Steelheads

The Idaho Steelheads (15-11-2) fell tonight to the Bakersfield Condors (9-13-4) by a 3-1 score in front of 4,450 fans at Qwest Arena. Bakersfield won largely because of 45 saves made by goalie Yutaka Fukufuji. After Wednesday?s first period yielded three goals from each team, tonight?s first period ended in a scoreless tie; a tie that was not broken until a Chad Painchaud shorthanded goal put Bakersfield on top 1-0, with an assist from Matt Pope, at 6:20 of the second period. Less than two minutes later, Nick Pernula scored his first of the season for the Condors, with assists going to Painchaud and Martin Frechette. However, at 8:44 of period number three, Bryan McGregor gave his team new life, cutting the Bakersfield lead to one goal with a shot over Fukufuji?s right shoulder. Adam Welch and Marty Flichel tallied assists on the goal. However, a Garett Bembridge penalty taken while the Steelheads had the extra attacker on the ice thwarted the Idaho comeback attempt, as the Condors? man-advantage resulted in Matt Pope?s team-leading 14th of the season. Scott Balan and Andrew Ianiero picked up assists. Rejean Beauchemin took the loss and fell to 7-6-2; he stopped 21 of 24 Bakersfield shots. Fukufuji improved to 1-3-0, and stopped 45 of 46 Idaho shots.