Jack Campbell pulled in Bakersfield Condors loss to Coachella Valley Firebirds

Keeping the puck out of the net has been a challenge across the Edmonton Oilers organization over the past few days.

The big-league club allowed 12 goals in back-to-back losses to the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers this week while Jack Campbell was pulled during the second period of a 5-2 Bakersfield Condors loss to the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

There was talk that the Oilers would call Campbell up for “one more shot” at the NHL level but his play against lesser competition in the AHL hasn’t warranted a recall. The 31-year-old now has a 3.46 goals against average and an 0.888 save percentage across 10 games since being sent through waivers to the American Hockey League back in November.

Campbell allowed four goals on 21 shots in the loss to Coachella Valley, as he had a solid first period before the wheels came off in the second. The first goal came on a two-on-one that Campbell can’t really be blamed for but the Firebirds’ three-goal rally in the second frame featured a couple of ugly ones.

The Firebirds took a 2-1 lead just over one minute into the second period after Tucker Robertson fired a shot past Campbell’s diving glove. Campbell came out to the top of the crease while following the puck and fell onto his back and wasn’t able to get back in position in time to stop Robertson’s shot.

Later in the second period, Max McCormick fired a shot on goal from the top of the faceoff circle and the puck squeezed through Campbell’s pads and just trickled past the goal line to give Coachella Valley a 3-1 lead.

A few minutes later, the Firebirds scored again to make the score 4-1 and Campbell was pulled from the game. This one is difficult to blame entirely on the goaltender because the Bakersfield defenders do nothing to deal with the Firebirds forward screening Campbell but he also left a huge part of the net wide open.

 

Despite the lopsided score, there were a couple of positive notes to take from Bakersfield’s loss on Saturday. Olivier Rodrigue stopped 15 of 16 shots in relief of Campbell and now has a 0.935 save percentage across six appearances while Raphael Lavoie buried his eighth goal of the season.