PREVIEW: Gulls Travel North of the Border For Road Series Against Canucks
Oct 28, 2022By Brett Pickler/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls travel to Canada for a series with the Abbotsford Canucks starting tonight at the Abbotsford Center (7 p.m. PT; AHL TV, RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
This is the first of four regular-season meetings between the two Pacific Division foes this season. San Diego will look to fare better against its northern neighbors, as the Gulls went just 1-6-1 against the Canucks last season. In that win – a 4-3 victory on home ice – Brayden Tracey recorded two points while Danny O’Regan and Hunter Drew found the back of the net.
The Gulls enter the first matchup fresh off a 4-3 win over the Colorado Eagles on Wednesday, a win dominated by San Diego’s special teams. They converted twice with the man advantage and posted a perfect penalty kill.
The power play has been a staple of the team’s offensive production, led by defenseman Nikolas Brouillard. In the win over Colorado, he registered his third multi-point game of the season with a power-play goal and assist. He also leads San Diego in points with 3-5=8 and is tied for most points among defensemen in the American Hockey League.
"The power play is doing great," Brouillard said following the win. "I'm just trying to do my best, trying to give it all every night and I think it pays off."
Despite the team’s confidence with the man advantage, the Gulls believe they still need to work on their 5-on-5 play. In their five games, San Diego allowed 20 goals – 15 at even strength – and is a focus heading into the weekend set.
"Well, you know what, we’re just not creating a lot offensively 5-on-5," Gulls head coach Roy Sommer said after beating Colorado. "I mean, we scored a couple goals there in the third. That’s why we won the game, but we were just kind of relying everything on the power play to get us points," Sommer said. "We’ve got a lot of work to do. That team there, they get after pucks and it just shows me where we’re at right now. I think, I don’t know if our conditioning still needs to get better, but they won a lot of races and we didn’t. I mean we got the win, but we still have a lot to work on."
Abbotsford comes into the matchup with a 2-2-0-0 record, led by the play of rookie center Linus Karlsson. He paces all Canucks with 1-4=5 points and is riding a four-game point streak. However, San Diego cannot afford to give all their attention to the rookie, as fellow forwards Tristen Nielsen, John Stevens and Carson Focht help give the Canucks a balanced attack.
San Diego is looking to continue their winning ways north of the border. The Gulls currently sit at 2-3-0-0 after breaking a three-game losing streak in their last outing. However, the team seems confident as players get comfortable with each other’s style and lines become more stable.
"I think chemistry [is building] a little bit," Gulls forward Jacob Perreault said. "You know, at the start, everyone is new and kind of getting used to playing with each other. Now, it’s been a few games so you kind of know everyone’s tendencies so you kind of get used to it, kind of get in a spot with them. We’re trying to push the pace up every game."