Preview: Gulls Go For Revenge Over Canucks
Jan 23, 2024By Morgan Korovec/SanDiegoGulls.com 
The San Diego Gulls are back home and set to host the Abbotsford Canucks in their own building, surrounded by America’s finest fans.
Pechanga Arena San Diego will be the journey’s end for the four-game regular-season series between the Gulls and Canucks who will faceoff at 7 p.m. for their third straight game in four days. (7 p.m. PST; TV: AHLTV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
The Gulls split the wins with the Canucks over the back-to-back weekend at Abbotsford Centre, with San Diego dropping a 5-2 decision on Sunday following a hard-earned 4-3 victory the night before. This leaves San Diego’s overall record at 12-17-6-0.
"It seemed like [the Canucks] were on their toes a lot more," assistant coach Jason Clarke said. "We took advantage of them early in the game on Saturday. They responded really well early in the game and they just took a lot of time to space away from us very, very early. We just couldn’t seem to recover from it."
Sunday’s contest at Abbotsford saw Glenn Gawdin earn his team-leading 12th goal of the season, stretching his point streak to a season-high five games (4-1=5). Meanwhile, Trevor Carrick collected his team-leading 20th assist of the season, which is tied for sixth among AHL defensemen.
Drew Helleson beat the clock to net his second goal of the season with 30 seconds remaining in the middle frame.
"We got two of four points over the weekend," Clarke said. "We head back to San Diego, and we have the same opponent again, so it should be a different story on Tuesday.
"I think the big difference was one team played one way on Saturday and one team played one way on Sunday, so it will be the rubber match as I like to say, on Tuesday."
Along with zooming in on their opponent to become equipped for this scaled-down playoff-like series, San Diego has focused on their play, emphasizing being tight and tuning up their game, including their approach to the penalty kill.
"We’ve been much more attentive to the small details and also you got to give your hat off to our goaltending," Clarke said. "Your goalies got to be your best penalty killer and our goaltending has been outstanding over the last couple of games on the penalty kill. You really got to praise that when it’s going well, but the attention to detail on the small parts has definitely been the key to our success."
"A few weeks ago, we had kind of a reset and sat down and looked at what we’re doing well, what we need to improve on the kill," center Andrew Agozzino added. "I think since then, we’ve taken a little more ownership, a little more pride and I think it’s been a big help for us as of late."
Like the Canucks did on Sunday, the Gulls will look to bring a proper response to the ice after their loss, to conclude the stretch of fiery battles with Abbotsford.
This final stand will allow San Diego the opportunity to earn their second win over Abbotsford this season, aiming to carry play as they did on Saturday and rigorously defend home ice from the Canucks.
"It’ll be nice to get back home. It’s a quick turnaround still. You treat it like a mini-series and if you can get four out of six from them, I think that’s a good set," Agozzino said.
Following tonight’s game, San Diego readies to hit the road for back-to-back contests at Wells Fargo Arena to take on the Iowa Wild on Friday, Jan. 26 (5 p.m. PST) and Saturday, Jan. 27 (4 p.m. PST).