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Condors, Salmon Kings Ready For Battle

April 10, 2008

By Cleve Dheensaw
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008

VICTORIA, British Columbia - The Bakersfield Condors finished 30 points behind the Victoria Salmon Kings in the ECHL regular season.

Yet that may not be the true 'Bakersfield Sound' and maybe the most meaningless statistic heading into the clubs' best-of-seven ECHL National Conference quarter-final playoff series, beginning with Game 1 on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

The most significant stat might be that the Condors are 7-3 in their last 10 games to Victoria's 6-2-2.

A playoff berth wasn't assured until late for the Condors and they have been through plenty of taut and edgy playoff-type games already in desperately holding off the Stockton Thunder and Phoenix RoadRunners to take the conference seventh seed.

"Bakersfield is one of the hottest teams in the league and will challenge us . . . . they are as good as Alaska," said Victoria head coach Mark Morrison, who guided his club to third overall in the National Conference, but into the second seed thanks to winning the West Division.

"They [Condors] did not have the right chemistry early in the season but they have gone out and done the right things to correct that and are on a roll."

Bakersfield's scoring has always matched up well against Victoria's defense and the Condors outscored the Salmon Kings 40-39 in their nine head-to-head games during the regular season. The season series was competitive and ended 6-3 from Victoria's perspective but 3-3-3 from Bakersfield's due to three games won by Victoria in overtime or shootout.

"They have great depth of goal scoring with [Mark] Derlago, [Brett] Lutes, [Andrew Ianiero] and this new [NCAA] kid [Dale] Reinhardt," noted Morrison.

"It's going to be a long, hard series against them. They are aggressive forecheckers and we have to tighten up defensively and play the same way we played against Alaska last weekend."

Derlago, who led the major-junior WHL in scoring last season with 46 goals, was third in ECHL goals scored this season behind Victoria's blazing Goldie brothers, Wes and Ash. And Derlago feasted on Victoria this year as a rookie pro. Over one-quarter -- 10 of his 39 goals on the season -- have come against Victoria.

"You can't focus just on Derlago because they have so many guys who can score," said Salmon Kings' standout rookie defenseman Dylan Yeo.

Senators draft pick Ianiero had 12 points on the season against Victoria and Konsorada, Sean Venedam and Blues draft-pick Lutes 10 points each.

Konsorada, a 2002 Blue Jackets draft pick, tied for 14th in league scoring with 68 points. Kevin Truelson, a former Frozen Four player with the University of New Hampshire, was top-five this season in both goals and points for ECHL defensemen with 13 and 46, respectively.

This is clearly a team with skill enough to produce offence.

"Marty and Mark [Condors head coach Marty Raymond and assistant Mark Pederson] are a great duo and always have teams that are dangerous offensively," said Morrison.

"The Condors always have thinking teams, with lots of offence."

The Condors, one of only three ECHL clubs not affiliated with an NHL team, have never made the Kelly Cup Finals but have had some decent runs into the post-season. The fourth-year Victoria club is making only its second playoff appearance after a franchise record 42 wins on the season.

"Marty [Raymond] has more ECHL playoff experience than I do," noted Morrison.

Both clubs are riding hot goaltending into the post-season and crease play is often the deciding factor in playoff games. Victoria's Billy Thompson was named Rbk Hockey ECHL Goaltender of the Week for the season-closing week of the regular season while Yutaka Fukufuji, the first Japanese-born player to play in the NHL, carried almost the entire load in the net for the Condors during their season-saving rally to make the playoffs.

But the Salmon Kings, too, went through the crucible of a playoff-like atmosphere in hanging on to win the West Division last week.

"We're a confident group, but not over-confident," said Morrison.

"The guys know they have guys around them who will step up. There are no passengers in that room. And I think that's the biggest thing: They have trust in each other."

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