Final: Gulls 6, Heat 3

Sam Carrick's Hat Trick and Career Night Leads Gulls to 6-3 Win Over Stockton

Nov 25, 2018

Sam Carrick scored his first career hat trick, a natural hat trick, and factored in five of San Diego's six goals to help the Gulls to a 6-3 win over the Stockton Heat at Stockton Arena.

The Gulls scored three first-period goals for the fourth time this season, and San Diego scored three-or-more goals for the seventh straight game to eliminate any question whether they'd surrender a big 4-0 lead. The Gulls have now scored 57 goals through the team’s first 15 games of the season (excluding shootout goals), five more than the 52 goals scored through 15 games in 2016-17.

Carrick's career night saw him net the fourth hat trick and third natural hat trick in Gulls history, with his three consecutive goals by spanning 18:05 across the first and second periods (11:09 and 13:29 of the first period, and 8:14 of the second period). The hat trick set a new career high in goals for Carrick, surpassing the eight previous two-goal games (last: Oct. 6 at Tucson).

Carrick also earned two assists, setting a new single-game career high in points (3-2=5) and a Gulls single-game record for points in a game, surpassing the previous club record of four set on five prior occasions (last: Kalle Kossila, 0-4=4 on Jan. 3, 2018 at Texas). He also recorded a career high +4 rating. Carrick now leads San Diego in goals (9) and ranks tied for second on the Gulls in scoring (9-7=16).

It only took the Gulls 1:35 to get on the scoreboard for an early lead as Carrick found defenseman Simon Benoit on the blueline who wristed it towards the net, beating Stockton netminder Nick Schneider glove-side for his first career goal. Giovanni Fiore also added an assist on the play to make it five points (2-3=5) in his previous five games played.

Stockton took back-to-back hooking minors midway through the period, giving San Diego a 5-on-3 power-play opportunity. Coming into the game, the Gulls owned the best road power play in the AHL at 31.3 percent (5-of-16), and they continued their dominance on the man advantage.

San Diego doubled their lead as Carrick won a faceoff to give the Gulls the puck on the power play. After moving the puck around in the offensive zone, Isac Lundestrom found a wide open Carrick who blasted home a one-timer at the 11:09 mark of the period. The primary assist gave Lundestrom four points, all assists, in as many games played since being assigned to San Diego.

Josh Mahura added the other assist on the goal, giving him three assists in his last two games with the Gulls. The rookie defenseman was reassigned to San Diego shortly before the game after a three game stint with the Anaheim Ducks, where he collected one assist and a +3 rating in three games. In addition, he leads San Diego defensemen in scoring (1-8=9) and assists.

Carrick continued to build on a very strong first period, giving the Gulls their third consecutive goal of the period, this time on an odd-man rush. The goal came right after a big save from Kevin Boyle at the other end of the ice. Defenseman Steve Oleksy collected the rebound, flipped the puck off the wall to Chase De Leo who banked it off the boards to give Carrick the puck for the score at 13:29 of the first.

The second period picked up where the first had left off as Carrick recorded his third goal on a Stockton turnover behind their own net. The goal was unassisted at the 8:14 mark of the second period and marked the first hat trick of Carrick’s professional career.

The Heat made an all too familiar comeback effort scoring two goals to end the second period. At 9:49 of the second, a Stockton goal was tallied by Morgan Klimchuk off of a rebounded shot on an odd-man rush.

Stockton’s Glenn Gawdin scored power-play goal that was initially waved off with the period appearing to end before the puck crossed the line. With three seconds on the clock and a faceoff to the left of Boyle, the puck was won back to the point, slid across the ice and the one-time point shot from Alan Quine hit the post and was knocked in by Gawdin. After briefly reviewing the goal, the officials determined that the puck crossed the line with 0.7 seconds on the clock.

Andrew Mangiapane tallied another goal to cut the Gulls lead to just a single goal at 4-3 with 3:19 left in regulation.  Curtis Lazar picked up his third assist of the night on the goal.

With 39 second remaining in the game, Sam Steel forced a turnover to Carrick who flipped it up and over a Stockton defensemen to Steel for the empty-net goal. The score extended Steel’s point streak to five games (4-3=7) and gave Carrick his fifth point to set a new Gulls single-game record. 

As the game clock was in its final seconds, the puck found its way to San Diego’s Luke Schenn who attempted to clear the puck towards the empty net. Instead, Joe Blandisi accidentally blocked the clearance and shot the puck from his own zone into the net for his first goal with San Diego this season with two second left in the contest.

Blandisi pushed his point streak to five games (1-4=5), while Luke Schenn was credited with the assist for his second in as many games (0-2=2).

With the power-play tally, the Gulls have recorded a goal on the man advantage in 13 of their 15 games, including all five of their road contests. Their road power play stands at 31.6 percent (6-16).

Kevin Boyle earned his fifth win of the season after stopping 41-of-44 shots, marking the third time this season Boyle has made 40-or-more saves.

The Gulls will travel back to San Diego for two matchups at Valley View Casino Center where they will face the Manitoba Moose on Wednesday, Nov. 28 and Friday, Nov. 30, both (7 p.m., Radio: ESPN 1700).

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