It was another home-and-home matchup in the extremely tight Pacific between the Bakersfield Condors and the San Diego Gulls this weekend.

After splitting the two games, the Condors and Gulls remain six points apart, with San Diego having two games in hand. This opens up a bigger conversation about how close the Pacific division is in the AHL this season. Sitting at the top of the division are the Colorado Eagles (64 points in 46 games) and the Ontario Reign (64 points in 49 games), and the Condors sit at third with 59 points. Which means Bakersfield is only seven points up on seventh place and five points out of first place… the most crowded division in the AHL is also the tightest race so far. Every game matters, but these divisional matchups start to become early playoff games. For example, last week in my article, I talked about how the back-to-back losses to the Reign are an eight-point swing and any more weekends like that can be crushing down the line.

In other news, Atro Leppänen made his 2026 debut as the Finnish defenceman suited up on Friday and even had a season-high six shots on net, but he was out of action for the game on Saturday. By my count, the offensive defenceman missed 18 straight before returning Friday, and maybe the team didn’t want him playing in a back-to-back, just something to note. With the win on Saturday, the Condors snapped a small three-game losing streak. I can’t help but notice the slow starts and how long it takes for the offence to get going. During their losses, they have bad first periods, and then they are fighting from behind for the rest of the game. There’s a lot of perimeter play during the early moments of the game and a few too many point shots. When the Condors are on the offence is hard to stop, but lately it’s almost as if they need a feeling-out period.

With only a goal on the weekend, it may seem the Oilers’ top winger prospect had a quiet set of games, I found him to be one of the better Condors during the weekend. Howard continues to score at a great rate, and he is now sitting at 13 goals and 31 points in 24 games played. Last weekend against the Reign, the former Hobey Baker winner didn’t register a shot during the home-and-home (which are the only two games in the AHL where Howard didn’t record a single shot), but he did pick up the two assists.

The first thing I want to focus on is the continued growth of Isaac Howard’s game. I believe the Ice Man is starting to read his environment better and recognize the little amount of space he will have in the NHL. Being a “smaller” winger getting inside position, being tenacious, and having the outside edge work to cut on a dime and maintain strength/balance through the turns is almost a necessity at the next level if you want to have success. The first clip below illustrates this growth in his game.

Small cutbacks and getting on the inside of opponents will be key for Howard moving up the ranks, the good thing is that he has shown excellent lower-body strength when pressure is on his back. In the next clip below it’s about what I said earlier referring Howard learning his environment and where he should be on the ice to get the puck.

Its a powerplay goal, but this sort of mentality and pattern recognition can translate to 5v5 offence. Howard looks to his right and notices Viljami Marjala going to the back post and taking the defender with him, once Quinn Hutson cuts through the slot to the goal line, Howard backs up ever so slightly creating a wide open lane for captain Griffith to slide him a pass. Of course it’s always nice to see the shot of Howard, but knowing how to score is more important than any shooting mechanic. But as we all by know by now that progression isn’t a straight line and there will always be room to grow, that leads us into our next clip of the Bakersfield star. Howard steals the puck and has a clear lane to the net, but decides to stop up instead.

Quinn Hutson is trailing the play and the former Spartan recognizes this, however I would still prefer for him to rip this puck ten out of ten times with the shot Howard possesses. Even if you want to play the pass a heavy low shot will generate a rebound in the direction of Huston. This was the only time this weekend I found myself scratching my head, but its just one bad decision. For our final clip I just want to showcase the skill Howard continues to put on display.

After beating both defenders, the former Michigan State star slides a slick backhand pass through a thin opening to Quinn Hutson for a chance. Isaac Howard continues to grow and I can still see the middle-six scoring winger in him. Even his defensive game is continuing to round out. The Oilers top winger prospect continues to shine at the AHL level.

James Hamblin is the definition of hard-work. The Condors centre is now up to 17 goals on the year and is currently riding a seven game point streak scoring six goals and assisting on four others. Ever since his days in Medicine Hat with the Tigers Hamblin has always worked just as hard in the defensive zone as he does in the offensive zone; whatever is asked of the five-foot-nine centre he does with no issue.

Hamblin is a bit older to be considered a true prospect, but there is a world where he is a solid depth option for an NHL team down the road. The size and not elite footwork will always hamper his potential, but the defensive awareness and work ethic will go a long way. Lately, Hamblin has been stretching out his offensive muscles and it continued on the weekend with two more goals. In the two clips of Hamblin’s goals you’ll see the finishing ability in close on full display.

On the first clip its a great pass across from Samuel Poulin to Hamblin and then the Bakersfield veteran does it himself for his second of the weekend in the second clip. Although the goals are entirely different they do share the fact that they were both scored from the left side up high and at the AHL level Hamblin is a decent finisher. In his AHL career the Edmonton native is shooting 15% and during this season alone Hamblin is shooting at a 23.6% clip (which will come down at some point). Whether he makes the big leagues or not, this is a player that can be viewed as almost a Brad Malone impact type. Teaching the younger guys how to be professionals, taking on a leadership role, and being a productive player means your words has some weight behind them. Excellent weekend and seven game run from Hamblin, he deserves all the praise.

No points this past weekend for the Ohio State alumni, but once again Carfagna continues to show some interesting flashes in games. Both Carfagna and Akey are first year pros and when both are in the lineup they have been tied to the hip for a good part of the season now. Being first year pros is difficult enough, but having your defence partner also being a rookie is another challenge. Then you head over to the box score to see only six goals and 13 points in 42 games, but then you watch him and think “man if he could just be more consistent”.

The former Buckeye shows flashes of excellent work in transition using his feet and some sneaky skill he has. The two clips below show this to perfection.

Carfagna is at his best when he’s moving his feet and getting involved offensively. The left-shot defender doesn’t rush the puck to dump it in, but he tries to create something in transition. In previous articles I’ve shown videos of Carfagna getting involved in transition as the weakside defender and he needs to work on being consistent with these areas of his game. As you can see his mobility fuels his whole game, both offensively and defensively. It doesn’t show up in the box score, but when Carfagna is getting involved with his feet the Condors are usually pushing play in a positive direction with him on the ice, I would just like to see it more often.

Bakersfield is back in action Wednesday versus the Coachella Valley Firebirds who have a game in hand and are only two points back of the Condors for third. Like I stated in the introduction of the article, these games are early playoff games, a loss in regulation is a four point swing and they would still have a game in hand on you.

Matt Savoie was sent down to the Condors on Tuesday and will get in one game for Bakersfield. That is a massive helping hand coming down from the big club. Something to take note of is that the Condors have 722 penalty minutes as a team and it would help their playoff chances if they could keep that number down for the rest of the season. The young players continue to do the right things and with the big games coming down the stretch now they will be tested more than ever. I think they’re up for it.

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