Preview: Gulls Looking Extend Winning Streak, End Milwaukee’s
Jan 30, 2024By Nick Aguilera/SanDiegoGulls.com
It was a good week for the San Diego Gulls posting three straight wins, but their quest to extend that streak will be tested today against the Milwaukee Admirals, winners of ten straight, at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena (4:30 p.m. PST; TV: AHL TV; Radio: Gulls Audio Network).
San Diego is coming off a dominant weekend sweep of the Iowa Wild. They outscored Iowa 13-7 in two games, including a 7-4 win Jan. 27 that saw Sasha Pastujov and Nikita Nesterenko net the 10th and 11th hat tricks in Gulls AHL history.
"We know we can play with any team in the league," assistant coach Kris Sparre said. "Our saying is we always have enough to win…We’re finding a way right now and it’s fun to be a part of.
"Sasha, he was excellent…To step in and do what he did was phenomenal to watch."
Nesterenko was rewarded for his efforts on Monday, as he was named the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week on Monday after he tallied 4-3=7 points and a +6 rating in three games for the week ending Jan. 28.
"Feels good obviously, but it’s nicer when the team’s winning," Nesterenko said. "Feels good when you’re winning. We’re doing the right things right now."
The Gulls and Admirals haven’t seen each other since the start of December, when San Diego notched a 5-2 win in Milwaukee. Since then, both teams have found their stride, as the Gulls are 11-6-2-0 while the Admirals are a staggering 17-2-0-0.
"We’re welcoming this challenge," Sparre said. "They’re a great team. They haven’t lost in 2024. We feel like we’re in a great way. It’s one of those things where we can’t wait for the puck to tomorrow because it’s a great opportunity for us to see where we go against a top team in the league. We feel like we’re trending in the right direction, and we’ll find out a lot more about ourselves."
"A lot of the good teams that we’ve faced, they’re good on the transition and a lot of their goals are scored on the rush," Nesterenko added. "We did a couple drills [at practice] to kind of mock their rush, the 2-on-2 times two. There’s going to be a lot of give-and-go’s, a lot of cross-and-drops, so if we can just hold our lanes and stay on our guys man-to-man in tight, we should give them some problems."
The Gulls gained a defenseman on Monday, as the Anaheim Ducks reassigned Robert Hagg to San Diego. Hagg has recorded 1-3=4 points with a team-leading +7 rating in 22 games with the Gulls this season.
The game marks the last of San Diego’s three-game road trip through the Midwest. The Gulls will return home for a pair of games this weekend, Feb. 2 vs. Tucson (7 p.m. PST) and Feb. 3 vs. Colorado (6 p.m. PST), before the All-Star break.