PREVIEW: San Diego Open Final Month Of Regular Season With Weekend Set Against Iowa
Mar 31, 2022By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls are ready for redemption against the Iowa Wild as the two teams square off in a back-to-back series, their final two meetings of the regular season, beginning tonight at Pechanga Arena (7 p.m. PT; TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
The Wild are the only opponent from the American Hockey League’s Central Division the Gulls played against this year, and the two teams did not part on good terms. The Gulls fell in both games of a weekend set on Jan. 28 (3-2) and Jan. 29 (6-1), leaving them winless against the Wild and with a 7-4-1-0 record in their 12 previous matchups dating back to 2016-17.
"I want us to improve against Iowa," Gulls head coach Joel Bouchard said. "It’s going to be a different team, kind of a playoff vibe meaning that you go down deep into the playoffs, you see a different team that you haven’t seen all year or too much and they’re a different look at what we’ve seen in our division in some ways. They’re really hard, they’re really heavy, they’ve got some men on the other side which is a good challenge."
The Gulls are in the ideal place to take on such a challenge after earning points in eight of their last nine games (7-1-0-1) and recording a season-long six-game win streak at home that ended in a high-scoring 7-5 loss to the Stockton Heat on Mar. 27.
Alex Limoges stole the show once again, scoring his 19th and 20th goals of the season to push his career-high goal streak to five games (8-1=9). He became the second Gulls rookie in the team’s AHL history to score 20 goals in a season (last: Sam Steel, 2018-19).
"Just don’t overthink it," Limoges said about what has led to his recent success. "Keep playing the game the right way and the hockey gods will reward you. It’s one of those things where you keep putting the puck deep, offense will create itself and as long as you’re working hard and taking the body on the forecheck, creating turnovers, winning battles, that kind of stuff will lead to direct offense."
If the left wing scores at least one goal tonight, he can set the records for most goals in a season by a rookie (21) and longest goal-scoring streak by a first-year skater (six games).
Limoges also established a new career-high point streak of seven games (8-4=12) and his 9-7=16 points over his 11 games in March set a new record for the most points by a Gull in single a month (previous: Chase De Leo, 15 points, April 2021).
The tear Limoges is on is only a piece of increased team scoring. The team scored 36 goals over its last nine games, an impressive four goals-per-game average. Additionally, the Gulls outscored their opponents 36-18 over that same stretch.
Bouchard said. “Our “We’ve grown in every aspect, with and without the puck and it’s hard to be specific about one thing or the other,” scoring has gone up for last few months and our defense has got better, but it’s all the details we’ve been pushing since day one and it takes time.”
Two other players contributing to San Diego’s offensive surge are Lucas Elvenes and Jacob Perreault.
Elvenes collected 1-2=3 points on Mar. 27 to tie his season high for points in a game, extending his point streak to a fourth game (2-4=6), his longest point streak as a Gull.
Perreault pushed his point streak into a seventh game (4-10=14) with his fourth consecutive multi-point game (0-2=2) in Sunday’s setback and has 5-12=17 points over his last 15 games.
"You’ve got to give yourself volume, you have to give yourself looks that make sense that you have a chance," Bouchard said when asked about the team’s increased offense. "We really work on maximizing the scoring chances we get in different ways."
Additionally, from the start of his point streak on Mar.16 to Mar. 27, Perreault tied for second most points in the AHL (4-7=11) and ranked third in assists (7). Only Limoges sat above him, ranking first in the league in both goals (8) and points (8-4=12).
"Joel (Bouchard) gave us a game plan at the start of the year and we haven’t changed anything," Gulls defenseman Trevor Carrick said. "We’ve kind of stuck with it, but we just been kind of working on it and trying to progress and it been really nice to see that. Everyone is kind of on-sync right now and everybody is on the same page and it’s kind of easier to play when you know when your teammate is going to be there for you and stuff like that. Things are progressing in the right direction, and I still think we even have a little more."
San Diego will need to keep the offense going against Iowa, who outscored them 9-3 over the previous two meetings this season.
The Wild sit in seventh place in the Central Division and enter searching for their game, posting a 2-5-1-1 record over their last nine contests. That includes a recent stretch, where the team dropped four of its last five games. Only five teams make the Calder Cup Playoffs from the Central Division, and Iowa enters tonight sitting three points back of the Texas Stars for the final playoff spot.
Mitchell Chaffe scored a natural hat trick, including two power-play tallies, for the Wild in the Gulls loss on Jan. 29. After a five-game pointless streak, the right wing seems to be warming up just in time for tonight’s matchup, scoring four goals over his last two games (4-1=5).
The Gulls will also have to keep an eye out for Brett Connolly who, like Limoges and Perreault, is on a seven-game point streak (7-3=10).
The Wild rival San Diego’s young stars with a rookie threat of their own in Marco Rossi, who leads the team in assists (28) and points (44), while ranking fifth in points among AHL first-year skaters.