TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

A crowd of more than 7,757 on Saturday night to see the Condors take on the Las Vegas Wranglers at Rabobank Arena.

Bad ice -- there were ripples in many areas much like a washboard -- created a surreal situation that ended up boarding on the absurd before the game finally got under way at 8:52 p.m., an hour and 47 minutes after the scheduled puck drop.

The Condors were tailing 3-2 after two periods of play.

Before the game finally started, it was clear the Wranglers, who have a 2 p.m. game back in Las Vegas today, were partially responsible for the continuing delay.

In fact, when the game was finally ready to start, the Wranglers did not come out of the locker room, until fetched (after about a four-minute meeting with the referee and linesmen),

"Every time I thought we were going to play, the ref would go talk with Vegas and it would be delayed again," said Condors president Matthew Riley.

The delay started just as teams were ready to take the ice for the start of the game as the ripples, which weren't there or had not been noticed in warmups 18 minutes earlier, caused concern from referee JM McNulty and the linesmen.

The decision to resurface the ice was made but after resurfacing the ripples remained and things got weird.

"I don't know (why the ice was bad)," said Condors President Matthew Riley. "Nobody said anything after warmups."

The ripples remained visible after the resurfacing and NHL veteran Kyle Calder went out on the ice at 7:33.

"Calder skated and and said it was good," Riley said. "I told the ref (JM McNulty) that Calder played 590 games in the NHL and what more is there to talk about."

By that time, Riley had already asked that the Zamboni at the Bakersfield Ice Sports Center (across the railroad tracks) be brought over. It's arrival, however, was delayed by a train.

The decision was made to dry cut the ice with the newly-arrived Zamboni, which hit the ice at 7:44.

At 8:14, players from both teams hit the ice as it appeared the game would soon start, but the players just kept circling slowly.

"I said if the ice was unsafe I don't want to play," Riley said, noting he as well and the referee had several conversations with the ECHL Commissioner and Director of Officials. "But our whole team was out there skating and they said it was fine; They said it was not perfect, but was the same for both teams and would get better after it was skated on."

The decision was made again to send the Zamboni back out, this time doing a full resurfacing,

Fans roared when the Condors finally skated on the ice to start the game but then came the long wait for the Wranglers to be coaxed out.

"We've got over 7,000 people here, the ice is safe and we can't get the game started," Riley said.

When the Wranglers finally did appear they were greeted by a thunderous chorus of boos.

During the delay the arena provided a free soda to the fans.

After the game started, the Condors announced that fans could turn in their ticket stubs for 2-for-1 tickets for any Condors home game in February.

"We're happy to do that," Riley said of the 2-for-1 offer. "We had some fans with young children leave before the game started and we traded tickets for them."

Notes

* The Condors begin a three-day all-star break (no, there was not an all-star game but players still get a union-mandated break). They will return to practice on Wednesday and travel to Anchorage on Thursday to begin a set of three-games in three days against the Alaska Aces on Friday.

* Parker Stanfield extended his scoring streak to four games with a first-period goal on Saturday night.