PREVIEW: San Diego Searches For Fresh Start As They Finish Back-To-Back In Stockton
Dec 4, 2021By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
Sometimes all you need is a fresh start.
The San Diego Gulls are aiming for just that as they take on the Stockton Heat tonight (6 p.m., PT; TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network). The team dropped the first game of this back-to-back set, with after their 4-1 loss to the club last night snapping San Diego’s their five-game winning streak.
The Gulls are now 0-2-0-0 against the Heat this season and carry a 19-23-4-3 all-time overall record (8-14-2-2 on the road) versus the club.
“Well, I liked the start,” Gulls head coach Joel Bouchard said following the game. “I thought we were right on target with what we want to do versus a really good team. Realistically, with a very young lineup on the road, I feel the adversity got to us and we kinda crumbled. We showed our youth and our, kind of, emotion. Which is expected a little bit in the growing process. So, I’m not surprised about it. I’m not even mad or disappointed. The guys, I think, is just part of growing up to be a hockey player and learning how to match other teams when they raise the stakes.”
The Gulls will look to replicate their excellent first period, where they allowed just one shot to Stockton, establishing a new team record for the fewest shots allowed in a first period. Despite seeing the Heat score on their lone shot, San Diego wants to replicate the effort tonight.
“We came out, we played a great first period, “ Danny O’Regan said. “We kept it simple, got pucks in deep and were really good in the d-zone. The d were doing a good job getting pucks out, beating their forecheck. One shot on net against a really good team was a really good start for us.”
More bright sports to the Gulls game came on the penalty kill as San Diego managed to stymie Stockton’s top-10 ranked power play on five of its six opportunities, with three of these kills occurring within the span of 7:14 in the second period. Over the last six games, the Gulls killed 24 of 28 power plays for an 85.7% success rate.
The Gulls also figured in on the other end of their special teams as O’Regan scored a power play goal despite the fact Stockton’s penalty kill is tied for second-best in the AHL with an 87.1% kill rate.
"They did a good job, they were a high-pressure team and that, some pucks bouncing a little bit," O’Regan said. "Guys were, if you hold onto it for an extra second, those guys are right on you. So, we’ve got to regroup, do a better job of just getting rid of it and talking a little bit more on the ice, supporting each other and getting some pucks to the net will be important for us."
O’Regan plays a major role in the success of the Gulls man advantage, which ranks third in the AHL at 23.4 %.. His tally last night marked his fourth goal of the season and third on the power play.
Defensemen Brogan Rafferty and Nikolas Brouillard both assisted on what would be the Gulls lone goal. Brouillard earned points in nine of his last 11 games (3-10=13) and leads AHL defensemen in assists (10) and points (13) since Nov. 1.
Nonetheless, the Gulls want more production from their power play as they were only able to capitalize on one of nine opportunities last night and the team knows it is a challenge to get anything past Stockton netminder Dustin Wolf.
“That didn’t go our way,” Bouchard said. “I think it affected us that we were not as free as we wanted to be. Ice was not very good, so it’s not a power-play ice. Which is not an excuse, but I think we just showed our youth in not finding solutions to problems. Or not finding solutions to counter match maybe their maturity and their capability of managing some area.”
Wolf ranks second in the AHL with a .934 save percentage (SV%) and his 2.07 goals against average (GAA) ranks third.
San Diego will also have to watch out for former Gull Andy Welinksi, who’s riding a five-game assist streak (0-6=6), and Connor Mackey, who led all skaters with 2-1=3 points in yesterday's win.
Searching for that fresh start, Bouchard is once again challenging his team to reach new heights.
“They gotta grow,” he said. "They gotta learn. As much as we’d like to think that they can learn in a video room or learn in a school, there’s no university of hockey. You gotta be on the ice and you gotta feel it and you gotta grow.”