Even in a desert like Henderson, when it rains, it pours.
On Saturday, the Henderson Silver Knights were blanked by the Bakersfield Condors 4-0, resulting in their seventh loss in the last eight games.
“They were ready to play,” said Silver Knights head coach Ryan Craig. “We beat them last night, we knew they were going to be ready to play tonight. I don’t know if we were exactly where we needed to be to start, so then usually when that happens, you chase the game. If you can avoid chasing it on the scoreboard, then you can find time to get to your game but, unfortunately, we didn’t.”
Working with a fast pace in the first few minutes, Bakersfield struck first on a broken play. The Silver Knights could not clear the defensive zone due to Condors defenseman Josh Brown finding the puck just before the blue line. He found Seth Griffith on the left wing, who fired a shot past Carl Lindbom’s glove to open the scoring.
Bakersfield would add to their lead on their first power play opportunity of the game. A shot from the point ricocheted off of Lindbom, unfortunately right on the stick of Quinn Hutson. The Condors’ leading point-scorer made no mistake on the second chance, burying the shot and doubling the lead for his team.
The second period would begin with more of the same for the Silver Knights. A weird bounce off the boards caught Lindbom by surprise, giving Condors forward James Hamblin an opportunity to add a third goal to the Bakersfield lead.
After a brief push in the third period, the Condors would finish the job late with a snipe from Isaac Howard.
Bakersfield goaltender Matt Tomkins was sharp in his 28-save shutout, particularly in the first period when he held off sustained Henderson pressure and allowed his team to build a lead.
“We were off-net too much, missed the net. When the puck did arrive there, we weren’t there,” said Craig. “Tomkins had a fairly easy night there in the sense of us getting in front of him.”
After such a difficult game, Craig talked about how important it was to regroup, especially after a game that got out of hand in the way this one did.
“We’ll take tomorrow. We just played back-to-back, so we’ll get some rest and recover.” said Craig. “We’ll get ready to get back to work on Monday, preparing to see these guys again.”