The line of ex-NHLer Kyle Calder, and ex-AHLers Bobby Robins and Joel Broda, combined for two goals and five assists on a night that saw the start time pushed back nearly half an hour because the Condors’ team bus was late to The Bank.
Kyle Kraemer scored the Reign’s only goal at 5:14 of the second period.
Newcomer Alan Dorich saw regular ice time early on a pairing with Luke Beaverson and shot a puck off the end boards that led directly to Kraemer’s goal. Not a bad debut.
But the Reign as a team didn’t get shots to the net with consistency until the third period, when they outshot the Condors 13-10. Prior to that they had only eight shots on net – including two in the second period – to Bakersfield’s 17.
Kellen Briggs stopped 23 shots but let in a pair of uncharacteristically easy goals, while former NHL goalie Josh Tordjman stopped 20 on the other end for Bakersfield.
The eight-place Reign fell six points behind the seventh-place Condors in the Western Conference standings. Bakersfield has handed the Reign two straight losses by the same score; the teams play again tomorrow night at 7 p.m.
The Reign went 0-for-5 on the power play, including 0-for-3 in the third period, to extend their stretch of futility with the man advantage to 2-for-40 in their last seven games.
“We’re working hard, we just have to get the puck in the net,” Kraemer said. “I’m confident, and so are the guys in the locker room, that we can get out of this funk.”
More from Kraemer and coach Karl Taylor in tomorrow’s editions of the Sun and Daily Bulletin.
