PREVIEW: Gulls, Wild Open Weekend Series In Des Moines
Apr 1, 2023By AJ Manderichio/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls and Iowa Wild open a weekend back-to-back series today, kicking off the two-game set at Wells Fargo Arena (4 p.m. PT; TV: AHL TV: RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
The two teams met a few weeks ago in San Diego, where the Wild grabbed two wins. Iowa took the first meeting 6-2 on Mar. 18, following that performance with a 4-3 shootout victory on Mar. 21. Despite the two losses, the Gulls earned points in 11 of the 16 previous matchups since the 2016-17 season (8-6-2-1). Justin Kirkland leads San Diego with 2-1=3 points in two games against the Wild, while Drew Helleson (0-2=2), Chase Priskie (0-2=2) and Brent Gates Jr. (0-2=2) recorded multiple points. Marco Rossi tallied a natural hat trick against the Gulls on Mar. 18, part of a four-point performance (3-1=4) in the previous two meetings. He’s tied with Nic Petan (1-3=4) for the most points earned against the Gulls in 2022-23.
"We believe we match up well against them," Gulls assistant coach Kris Sparre said. "We're playing some pretty good hockey, I think, as of late, in terms of cleaning up our defensive zone coverage and limiting scoring chances against. That's going to be key for this series. They have weapons over there like (Nic) Petan, who's an NHL player, a bona fide goal scorer and someone that we gotta pay close attention to and make sure we take care of our d-zone."
The two teams finish their four-game regular-season series with this weekend’s games. Facing each other in a short period of time – for the Gulls, they face Iowa in those contests over a nine-game stretch – Sparre acknowledged there aren’t too many secrets between the two clubs.
"It almost turns into a bit of a playoff series, and it's not so much about the x's and o's as it is the competitiveness and who's going to want to win that 50/50 puck battle, who's going to want to bang in that second rebound in front of the net," he explained. "And so, for us, it's a little bit of a chess match in terms of the system play. For us, it's going to come down to that compete level and just having that willingness to just want to win."
San Diego brings a potent power play into Iowa this weekend. After going 2-for-4 on the man advantage on Wednesday against the Tucson Roadrunners, the Gulls registered six power-play goals over their last six games and operating at a 22.2% success rate (6-for-27) over the span.
"Since the personnel changes (at the NHL trade deadline), our power play has been well over 20-percent, and we've done a good job generating chances for our team," Sparre said. "I like the way it looks. When you look at the analytics side of it, we've generated a lot of chances this year, and sometimes the puck goes in, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes we're not in control of that. Just making sure that they're getting set up, they're getting the opportunities that they need to get to have their offense be on display. That's my job, and then the goal scoring will go in eventually."
Iowa enters the weekend fourth in the Central Division, three points ahead of the fifth-place Rockford IceHogs. They’ve earned points in their last four games (3-0-0-1), a stretch that began with their first win against the Gulls. On top of their strong offensive attack, led by Petan, the Wild lean on a goaltending tandem of rookie Jesper Wallstedt and Zane McIntyre.
"They have good goaltending for sure, but they also have those weapons we just talked about and their power play is good," Sparre said. "For us, we have to be disciplined. Don't take penalties, because they're going to make you pay if you do. So, we'll limit that. And we have to get in front of this goaltender and take away his eyes and make sure we're ready to hack and whack, get those secondary chances in the net."