The Bakersfield Condors finished the week off playing only two games and winning one of them.

The lineup didn’t see massive changes during the win on Wednesday versus the Coachella Valley Firebirds, but in the overtime loss to the Calgary Wranglers, the lineup saw a few changes. The first major change was that Cam Dineen was finally back in the lineup for his first game since January 7th, and surprisingly, taking the spot of Beau Akey alongside Damien Carfagna. Another change on the defensive core was made, and it was Alec Regula getting into his first AHL game of the year, replacing Luke Prokop. The right-shot defenseman scored a tap-in goal from Samuel Poulin in his debut.

As for the changes up front, Josh Samanski returned from the Olympics and suited up. His last AHL game was almost a month ago after getting called up to the big club and playing in five games. The German centre may get recalled again before the Oilers face off against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday. The final change was Roby Järventie (out due to personal reasons) for Matt Savoie. The St. Albert product will be recalled ahead of Wednesday’s game and performed well in his only AHL game.

With the faces coming into the lineup against the Wranglers, you would expect the Condors to come out with a win in that one. Their most impressive performance came before they made any drastic changes to the lineup. The Condors were down 3-0 after the first period versus the Firebirds on the 18th, but they kept pushing and were able to claw all the way back to win the game by a score of 4-3 in regulation. This win was one of the more impressive performances I can remember as of late by the Condors. Bakersfield outshot Coachella Valley 18-4 in the third period, and it paid off as the Condors were able to generate three goals, capping off the comeback win.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t take the momentum from the comeback win and keep it rolling as they gave up a late tying goal on Friday against the Calgary Wranglers, then Quinn Hutson got beat wide by Daniil Miromanov on the overtime winning goal. With all the reinforcements suiting up on Friday, you would have hoped the Condors were going to be able to hold on to their lead and take both games on the week.

As for Beau Akey and Roby Järventie I haven’t seen any news on their status’ going into the games this week and both players have been showing off some strong play down the stretch.

Not seeing Roby Järventie’s name in Friday’s lineup hurt me as a hockey watcher. After one of his best performances of the year against the Coachella Valley Firebirds, the Finnish winger was out due to personal reasons. His game was absolutely on point against Coachella Valley; every puck he touched seemed to turn into a golden opportunity. Järventie finished the night with the game-winning goal and an assist and, in my eyes, was by far the most effective Condor on the ice.

At six-foot-three, his game is all about drawing eyes to himself and then finding the open man. That attribute was on display all night and ultimately led to Järventie scoring the game-winning goal, as you’ll see below.

With two defenders draped all over him and at least two other pair of eyes staring him down, Järventie fires a pass to the far side defenseman and then parks himself in front for an easy tap in. The former Senator draft pick did much of the same on Atro Leppanens goal to get the scoring started for the Condors. Järventie crosses the blue line and is able to slow play down till the passing lane to Samuel Poulin is open, Poulin then finds Leppanen for the a great goal.

Järventie was creating offence all night and in our next clip he nearly scored the goal of the year for the Condors season, but unfortunately the goal was called back due to goalie interference.

Järventie always impresses me with the amount of pressure he can but on his backside and just ignore them like their presence doesn’t matter at all. The 23-year-old forward is now sitting at 15 goals and 16 assists in 43 games played, Järventie was on a five game pointless streak before his incredible performance against the Firebirds.

But as you can see there is still much to love about Järventie’s game and I think he will be on the Oilers roster full time next year as a fourth liner at minimum. For all the offence we just watched on Järventie our final clip shows the growing care for defense he has and his underrated work ethic.

This was Isaac Howard’s first time going pointless in back-to-back games since the calendar turned over to 2026. The Oilers top prospect was all over the puck during the two games, but the luck just didn’t fall his way. Howard finished both games with four shots on net and there were chances for him to score.

Much like Järventie, Howard had a bad rep for his defensive game coming out of college and I think a lot of that has been fixed this year in the AHL. In the first clip below it shows Howard easily reading the defender and picking off the lazy pass behind the net almost finding one of Quinn Hutson or Viljami Marjala for a great look.

Between plays this on the forecheck and supporting defenders on the backcheck, Howard has began to round out his game fairly well. My main concern remains the inconsistency in his decision making. In the next clip below the American winger is sprung on a chance (much like one I highlighted in my last article) and shooting the puck isn’t a bad decision, however he doesn’t notice Quinn Hutson streaking to his right with some room.

The play I referenced in my article last week Howard stops up as he is streaking down the wing and ends up turning it over. Maybe that was playing in the back of his head and Howard made sure to get something out of this opportunity even if it isn’t the best decision to make. I don’t think its a vision/playmaking issue because in the same game later on Howard is able to find Quinn Hutson with a one touch pass springing him on a breakaway.

It may seem super nit picky, but to be an effective middle-six player or hopefully a top-six forward in Howards case you have to be able to make tough decisions and plays consistently. The top prospect still has the “young” player mistakes every once in awhile, but you expect that as a first year pro, I would be concerned if Howard wasn’t creating any offence at all but that is not the case at all. Below is a clip of Howard reading the defense easily on the 3-on-2 rush and setting up Viljami Marjala for a high danger chance of his own.

The former first rounder is still over a point-per-game and continues to flash brilliance. Can Howard continue to produce down the stretch when the games are essentially playoff games? I absolutely think so.

Still sitting in third on the team for points, Viljami Marjala continues to show some absolute magic on the ice at points and all you can do is watch in awe. This happens every once in awhile as the Finnish centreman as been able to split the defense a few times this year on a powerplay entry and he showed that off once again.

With Marjala’s 13 goals and 29 assist split you probably know he prefers to dish it out. On another powerplay this time against the Wranglers, Marjala does the same thing and creates some magic out of the powerplay drop entry. This time he does it a little differently by making a beautiful pass to Quinn Hutson in the slot for a great chance.

The powerplay entries show a great example of Marjala’s processing speed. When coming at defenders the former 2021 fifth-rounder can usually manipulate them and get what he wants. If that is denied Marjala is excellent at stopping up and doing exactly what he does in the above clip. Getting this much space is tough to do at 5-on-5 but one way to do it is to build speed under the play and I would like to see that more out of the playmaking centres game. In our final clip its more of what Marjala excels at and that is processing what happens in front of him then responding accordingly.

With one quick look into the middle of the ice Marjala knew he was going to pass that puck to Savoie before it even got to him. The playmaking game is very intriguing out of Marjala, he is only sitting at 82 shots in 50 games and he is shooting 15 per cent on the year. You would like to see him use the shot a bit more if possible.

The Condors split the goaltending duties with Matt Tomkins getting the win against the Firebirds and Connor Ungar losing to the Wranglers in overtime. I found both goalies were fine during the games, Tomkins locked it down after allowing three early goals. Ungar was reassigned to the ECHL Monday and that’s a sign that Calvin Pickard might be ready to get into some action now. Damien Carfagna also had a quiet three point outing against the Firebirds that deserves to be mentioned and it goes to show what can happen when you continuously activate as the weakside defender. It remains to be seen who is available and in the lineup for the Condors when they faceoff in a massive set of games against the Colorado Eagles on the 24th and 25th.