Condors rally in third to beat Steelheads, 6-4

(Bakersfield, CA) - Bakersfield scored four times over the game's final ten minutes to rally past the Idaho Steelheads Friday night, 6-4, in front of 6,811 fans at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield. With the win, Bakersfield (33-25-3, 69 points) has moved to within one point of Idaho (29-21-12, 70 points) for the third spot in the ECHL's Western Conference standings. Idaho drew first blood quickly as Junior Lessard turned a bad bounce off the boards from a Marty Flichel dump-in into essentially an empty-net goal. Bakersfield goaltender Brian Stewart was headed behind the net to gather the dump-in, but the bouce veered out in front of the net to Lessard for the easy tap-in goal, his tenth tally of the season. Bakersfield got goals from Guillaume Lefebvre and Adam Naglich to take a 2-1 lead after the first period. Idaho scored three times in the second period to take the lead. First, it was Geoff Irwin tying the hockey game at 4:03 of the second on a rebound off a Tyler Ludwig shot. At 13:22, Aki Seitsonen was a one-man rush, taking the puck from one end to the other before burying a shot over Stewart to give Idaho a 3-2 lead. Then, as the period wound down, Dustin Friesen fed Mark Derlago with a cross-ice pass on the power play and Derlago buried his league-leading 37th goal of the season. It's the fifth consecutive game with a tally for Derlago and he now has 15 points (10 goals, 5 assists) during that five-game stretch. The score stayed 4-2 well into the third period. At the midway point, Bobby Robins got loose in front of the net on the power play and beat Kris Westblom to cut Idaho's lead to 4-3. Just 1:27 later, Jean-Marc Beaudoin scored an even-strength goal to tie the game. And, just 1:40 after that, Andrew Ianiero scored on the power play to give the Condors a 5-4 lead. With the Idaho net empty, Slava Trukhno clinched the game with 1:49 to go with Bakersfield's fourth goal in a little over eight minutes, making it 6-4. Kris Westblom took the loss, stopping 30 of 35 Condor shots. Brian Stewart is the winner after stopping 23 of 27 Idaho shots. The Steelheads converted 3 of 8 power-play opportunities, while Bakersfield went 2 for 6 with the man-advantage. Despite the loss, Idaho officially clinched a berth in the ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs Friday night by virtue of Ontario's loss to Las Vegas. Idaho and Bakersfield meet for the final time in the regular season on Saturday night. The game begins at 8 PM (Mtn) with the pre-game show starting at 7:50 on KTIK (1350 AM). The Steelheads return home on Wednesday, March 23, to begin "Pink in the Rink" Week against the Ontario Reign. The Steelheads will wear specially-themed pink jerseys that will be auctioned off to raise money to fund the battle against breast cancer. The two teams play Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Tickets are available at www.idahosteelheads.com or by calling 208.331.TIXS. COORS OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME - Tyler Ludwig AQUAFINA THREE STARS 1) Andrew Ianiero (BAK) 2) Jean-Marc Beaudoin (BAK) 3) Slava Trukhno (BAK)