Gulls Fall Short in 4-2 Duel with Stars
Mar 22, 2024By Morgan Korovec/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls couldn’t quite dim the Texas Stars Friday night as they fell just short in a 4-2 decision at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
"It was the response that we were looking for, from a detail perspective, from an effort perspective," head coach Matt McIlvane said. "I thought we had a lot of really great moments in this game. Unfortunately, they sneak one through at the end, but there’s a lot to feel good about in this game."
Texas kicked off the scoring with a power-play goal from Christian Kyrou at 5:30 in the opening frame.
It would not take long for San Diego to fire back as Andrew Agozzino ripped a shot of his own on the power play, collecting his 17th goal of the season at 9:26.
Both sides went to work on untying the score in the middle frame, Nathan Gaucher using that energy to fuel his eighth goal of the season, putting the Gulls in front at 6:41 and giving him goals in back-to-back games.
The Stars responded at 16:23 as Fredrik Karlstrom buried a shot on the power play, leveling the score to end the second.
Despite a strong surge from San Diego, Texas’ Mavrik Bourque hit the net at 16:30 to hand the Stars the lead.
With under five seconds left in regulation, Bourque struck again, hitting the empty net to seal the deal.
Tomas Suchanek stood tall in net, stopping 29 of 32 shots.
Chase De Leo recorded two assists on the night. Trevor Carrick and Judd Caulfield each picked up a helper.
"There’s so much better structural play from us in this game, keep and build on that, just keep staying curious about how we can get on the board a couple more times," McIlvane said.
The Gulls will be right back to their game on Sunday, Mar. 24 as they host the Calgary Wranglers at Pechanga Arena San Diego (5 p.m. PST).