PREVIEW: Gulls, Roadrunners Finish Weekend Series In Tucson
Oct 30, 2021By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
The first one is always the hardest.
A day after earning their first win of the season, the San Diego Gulls are primed and ready to once again battle the Tucson Roadrunners, hoping they can sweep the second game of their two-game series tonight at Tucson Convention Center Arena (7 p.m. PT; TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
“Well, I think we’ve talked about working hard this week,” head coach Joel Bouchard said. “You asked me if we were going to be better and I said ‘I hope so.’ I know we got better during the week, but you never know how it’s going to translate in game. I thought we were obviously better. That’s the standard. I’m not going for lower than that.”
San Diego is 26-20-2-1 overall and 13-9-1-0 on the road all-time against Tucson. Tonight is the second matchup of an eight-game regular-season series, one which the teams split evenly during the 2020-21 season.
“AHL is tough, you go back against the same team so I’m expecting them to come pretty hard at us tomorrow in their own building,” Bouchard said. “So I want to see how we’re going to be able to be even better in some detail towards a bigger pressure. I’m expecting them to put a lot of pressure on us.”
After being outscored 16-5 in their first three games, the Gulls offensive exploded for a 5-1 win against the Roadrunners last night. Key to the success came from sustained possession and a successful forecheck.
“That’s something that we know, as a team, when we’re playing our best, we’re playing physically so I think the fans saw that tonight for sure,” Gulls center Jack Badini said. “It generates offense, right? So, we get in on the forecheck and we use our bodies and it generated a lot of offense for us tonight.”
Jacob Perreault enters tonight leading the Gulls with four points (2-2=4), collecting his second multi-point performance in the win. Alex Limoges (2-0=2) and Bryce Kindopp (0-2=2) also posted multi-point performances.
Jack Badini enjoyed a milestone night, scoring his first career American Hockey League goal, the game-winning tally just over a minute into the second period. Greg Pateryn earned an assist for his first point as a Gull.
“It wasn’t the most exciting game winner, it was a second period goal and the boys ended up piling a couple more on there,” Badini said. “It’s always nice to chip in offensively.”
Limoges enters the night leading the team in goals (3). One of his two last night came on a major strength for the Gulls - the power play. San Diego scored a power-play goal in its fourth consecutive games and it ranks tied for second in the AHL at 33.3% (5/15).
“We really just played a team game,” Badini said. “We obviously didn’t get off to the good start we wanted this season, but I think the boys really rallied around each other, came together as a team. Playing on your own is always difficult and I think we really dominated…it was really nice to see the boys come together and put a real solid effort in tonight.”
A rookie and a vet helped seal San Diego's first victory.
In his return to the lineup, Gulls captain Sam Carrick got his first goal and point of the season, while center Mason McTavish earned an assist in his Gulls debut.
This seems to be a patten for the 18-year-old, as McTavish scored in his NHL debut with the Ducks earlier this season, becoming the youngest player in franchise history to find the back fo the net.
“I think the organization likes him. I like him,” Bouchard said. “But what I like about him is his presence, the way he goes about it. He goes about his business, he’s a hockey player. I’m still going to push him on some details and you know, obviously he’s still an 18-year-old kid that’s a big piece of the puzzle in the organization. But what I like is he’s cool headed. He buys in. He’s a competitor. I think every coach would like him. That being said, he’s still gotta get better like everybody else.”
Despite only scoring once in the loss, Tucson still boasts plenty of offensive talent. Roadrunner Ben McCartney is tied for third among rookies with three goals. He collected these during his first professional hat trick in a 4-0 win over the Texas Stars on October 23.
Additionally, Liam Kirk is currently on a two-game point streak after scoring Tucson’s lone goal on Friday.
“As soon as we leave the rink, we start getting ready for tomorrow,” Badini said. “Like you said, at any level it’s always hard to beat a team twice in a row so we know we’re going to get their best tomorrow. We have to come and match that and I think if we played like we did tonight, we’ll have a good shot.”