De Leo, Agozzino Shine as Gulls Soar 4-2 Over Condors
Apr 10, 2024By Morgan Korovec/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls kicked off their final road trip of the season with a 4-2 victory as they grounded the Bakersfield Condors Wednesday night at Mechanics Bank Arena.
"It’s fun to watch the puck go in the net early," head coach Matt McIlvane said. "Thought we did a good job staying disciplined, staying out of the penalty box for the most part, and I thought that our team defended well. I thought that the team effort today was great."
Things went especially right Wednesday night for two San Diego skaters as Chase De Leo (15-32=47) and Andrew Agozzino (22-35=57) each netted a pair of goals to help fuel the win.
At 6:41 in the opening frame, De Leo joined the commotion in front of the net, burying his 14th goal of the season to set the Gulls up in the score column first. Continuing their trend of striking first, San Diego has now opened the scoring in 12 of their last 16 games.
Riding that wave, Agozzino wasted no time cashing in on the net just 23 seconds later, extending the Gulls’ lead at 7:04 with his 21st goal of the season.
De Leo kept that momentum going, notching his second of the night at 13:12 to beat Jack Campbell, giving the captain his 15th goal of the season to add to San Diego’s advantage.
Just short of four minutes left in the first, Bakersfield mustered up a response as Cameron Wright knocked one in to get the Condors on the board to end the frame.
Disciplined play continued through the middle frame which saw just a single penalty, while the scoreboard was also kept clean for a scoreless second period.
Bakersfield’s Philip Broberg broke the ice at 17:37 in the final frame to make it a single-goal gap.
Agozzino wouldn’t let that fly as he sent his second of the night into the empty net at 18:57, earning his 22nd goal of the season while restoring San Diego’s two-goal lead for the Gulls to fly back to the locker room with their heads held high.
Sam Colangelo tallied two assists on the night, giving him two multi-point efforts in his first four AHL appearances (1-3=4). Glenn Gawdin also recorded a pair of helpers on the night to earn his 32nd assist of the season. Sasha Pastujov recorded an assist at Wednesday’s contest, his second in as many games.
Calle Clang was solid in-net, stopping 22 of 24 shots on the evening to earn his 10th win of the season.
"Not a lot of time to be able to stay connected mentally, but for every opportunity, that’s our goal, is that we can show up and have a great team effort and try to keep learning, try to keep growing, try to keep getting better," McIlvane said. "We have a nice formula right now that we’ve got to just keep our foot on the gas."
The road trip continues for San Diego as they will take the ice again this Friday, Apr. 12 for a matchup with the Ontario Reign at Toyota Arena (7 p.m. PDT).