LIVE: Gulls Fall To Ontario 5-1
Apr 13, 2022By AJ Manderichio/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls fell to the Ontario Reign 4-1 tonight at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
The Gulls entered tonight looking for a win, which would punch their ticket to the 2022 Calder Cup Playoffs. The team will have another opportunity on Friday, advancing to the postseason with a win or a regulation loss by the Tucson Roadrunners.
The lethal duo of Martin Frk (3-1=4) and T.J. Tynan (0-3=3) led Ontario, who sit six points ahead of the Colorado Eagles for second in the division standings. Reign netminder Matthew Villalta stopped 22-of-23 shots for his 26th win of the season.
Benoit-Olivier Groulx scored for the Gulls, who saw their losing streak hit three games. Lukas Dostal made 24 saves in the loss.
Third Period Recap
Christian Wolanin extended Ontario's lead, scoring his first of the season with 7:14 remaining in regulation.
Frk - who scored two goals earlier in the game - picked up an assist for his third point of the contest.
Taylor Ward scored just 1:06 later, pushing the Reign lead to four on a deflection from just in front of Dostal.
Frk would ice the Ontario victory, finishing off a hat trick with an empty-net goal late in regulation.
Second Period Recap
Ontario appeared to extend their lead at 1:35 of the middle frame, with T.J. Tynan beating Dostal off the rush. The officials immediately waved off the goal, as Samuel Fagemo crashed into the San Diego goaltender, negating the goal and handing the Gulls a power play.
Groulx tied the game at 8:07 of the period.
Greg Printz played a loose puck around the boards, finding Trevor Carrick creeping down from the point. The defenseman quickly fed the puck toward the net, finding a curling Groulx for the deflection past Villalta for the game-tying tally.
Carrick continues to pile up assists, recording his fifth helper in his last four games.
Frk scored his second power-play goal of the game, restoring Ontario's one-goal lead with 33.4 seconds remaining in the period.
Frk and Tynan each picked up multi-point performances on the tally.
The difference through two periods is the power play. The Reign have goals on both their chances while the Gulls are 0-for-4 on the man advantage.
First Period Recap
Frk opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 5:04 of the opening period, one-timing a Tynan pass by Dostal for his 35th goal of the season.
The duo is lethal against the Gulls. Tynan collected his 16th point against San Diego this season, while extending his American Hockey League-leading assist total to 75. He also leads the league in power-play assists (40).
Dostal got the better of Frk late in the period, turning away the Reign forward's breakaway bid. Frk found himself behind the Gulls defense when he accepted a stretch pass from his own end, building speed as he moved in on Dostal. He brought the puck to his backhand and looked to flip it over the San Diego goaltender, but Dostal met him him with the pads to send the puck harmlessly into the end boards.
The Gulls goaltender finished the first period with nine saves on 10 shots. He enters tonight at 17-11-1 with two shutouts, a 2.59 goals-against average (GAA) and .917 save percentage (SV%).
Villalta stopped all seven shots he faced in the first period. The Kingston, ONT native is enjoying a career year, entering tonight at 25-8-7 with a 2.93 GAA and .904 SV%. Villalta is third among American Hockey League goaltenders in wins and fourth in saves (1092).