Gulls Road Win Streak Ends In Loss To Roadrunners
Apr 10, 2021The San Diego Gulls four-game road win streak came to an end tonight as the Tucson Roadrunners found their way to a 4-1 win. The Gulls were unable to carry the offensive momentum they gained last night when they matched their club record for goals scored in a road game with eight.
“I think they just played hard with a lot of skill and we just weren’t on our game tonight,” said Gulls forward Andrew Poturalski “We weren’t getting puck deep and using our speed to our advantage. I think we got too cute a lot of times and we just weren’t playing hard hockey. That was tough for us.”
Tucson tallied the game’s first goal 7:58 into the opening frame when Cameron Hebig made the most of a rebound from a high shot. Gull’s netminder Olle Eriksson Ek made the initial save, but couldn’t get back into position in time to keep the second attempt out of the net.
San Diego’s Jamie Devane squared up with Tucson’s Kyle Neuber late in the first period as the two connected on several strong punches. Devane was given a two-minute instigating minor in the exchange.
Roadrunners right wing Michael Carcone continued an impressive offensive display, scoring the next two goals. The first came on the power play with 2:01 left in the first period and the forward added another with 42 seconds into the second. The two-goal effort marked his sixth goal (6-0=6) over the back-to-back set.
Former Gull Kevin Roy continued to torment his former team, picking up another multi-point performance. He's collected 2-9=11 in six games against San Diego.
Tucson extended their lead to 4-0 when Jan Jenik snuck a shot past Eriksson Ek from the faceoff dot at the 9:10 mark of the third frame.
Matt Lorito nearly got the Gulls on the board when Maxim Golod found him on centering pass in the slot. With nobody around him, Lorito fired a shot on net, but Tucson netminder Chris Nell slid across the crease and made an impressive blocker save to keep San Diego off the scoresheet.
Benoit-Olivier Groulx scored with 2:37 left in the game to get San Diego on the board. Golod sauced the puck from the Gulls end to the neutral zone where Nikolas Brouillard caught it in full stride. Brouillard slid the puck to Groulx who wasted no time getting his shot on net for the score.
Groulx’s goal marked his seventh of the season to give him points in back-to-back games (1-2=3). The rookie forward ranks tied for fifth in goals and ninth in scoring with 7-9=16 points among AHL rookies.
Nikolas Brouillard’s assist on the play marked his third straight game with a helper (0-4=4) and the defenseman-turned-forward now has points in four of his last five games (2-4=6).
“We get a day off tomorrow,” added Poturalski on getting rest and recovery ahead of the next game. “Maybe watch some golf, watch the Masters and forget about what happened tonight. We have a game on Tuesday, we have to be ready to come back and get another two points.”