PREVIEW: Gulls Search For First Road Win In Abbotsford
Apr 9, 2022By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls are in pursuit of their first road victory against the Abbotsford Canucks as the teams concludes a back-to-back set tonight at Abbotsford Centre (7 p.m. PT; TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
The Gulls fell to the Canucks 6-3 last night, bringing their overall record against Abbotsford to 1-5-0-0. San Diego attempted multiple comebacks with the help of two power-play goals, but the team failed to sustain the momentum it needed to edge forward in the game.
“It was an up and down game,” Gulls head coach Joel Bouchard said. “It’s a tough building to come (into). I still like that we stuck together somehow.”
The Gulls capitalized on the man-advantage to begin both the second and third periods, scoring a pair of power-play goals for the second game in a row. San Diego has six power play goals in its last four games, capitalizing on 35.3% (6-for-17) of their opportunities.
“I think we have to be realistic how much we’ve grown as a team and as individuals,” Bouchard said. “So, that’s why it’s a difference between you going like, ‘Well it was a bad game’ and then, ‘We didn’t really push back’. I felt, the guys, we had some push back.”
Alex Limoges certainly fought back with a record-breaking night, scoring his 21st goal and 11th power-play goal of the season to establish a new Gulls American Hockey League rookie record for most goals in a season (previous: 20, Sam Steel; 2018-19). His 11th goal on the man advantage ties the Gulls AHL record for most power-play goals in a season (last: Sam Carrick, 2018-19). Limoges collected points in nine of his last 10 games (9-5=14) and has 10-8=18 points over his last 14 contests.
Danny O’Regan scored the team’s other power-play goal, notching his eighth tally on the man-advantage and 13th of the season. The center collected a three-points against Abbotsford (1-2=3), earning 1-1=2 points on the power play for 7-8=15 points on the man-advantage to tie Limoges (4-11=15) for the most on the Gulls.
Hunter Drew assisted on both power-play goals for his sixth multi-assist outing of the season (0-2=2), while Lucas Elvenes collected an assist for 1-1=2 points in his last two games.
Bouchard is looking for the Gulls to use its power-play success to help drive success in all areas of his team’s game.
“Well, we need to gather momentum and when we did, we had scoring chances and we had looks.” Bouchard said.
Nathan Larose converted on one of those scoring chances to earn his first career AHL goal with the assistance of Trevor Carrick, who has four assists (0-4=4) in two games.
However, the most important key for the Gulls’ success is limiting Abbotsford’s time on power-play.
The Canucks quickly demonstrated why they rank third in the AHL on the power-play with an early goal from John Stevens.
“It started with the P.K. (penalty kill) and then 5-on-3 after thirty seconds,” Bouchard said. “We got down 1-0. I thought we established alright after. You’re on the road so you kind of put the odds on your side in making every decision that you can being the right one. I felt tonight we had a lot of decisions that were not optimal.”
Stevens pushed his goal streak to five games (6-1=7) with the tally and continues to haunt the Gulls with a team-leading 4-4=8 points against them this season.
Jack Rathbone also scored the Canucks game-winning goal on the man-advantage, while putting up a two-point effort (1-1=2) and extending his point streak to five games (2-8=10).
San Diego must be diligent in shutting down Stevens and Rathbone, as well as Matt Alfaro (0-2=2) and Yushiroh Hirano (0-2=2), who both had multi-assist games.