Game 18: San Diego Gulls @ San Jose Barracuda – Dec 3

The division leaders were always going to be a tall task (particularly in their own building), but the Gulls were riding high from their well fought victory just a few nights prior.

Jaycob Megna made his much needed return to the line-up, and the Gulls defensive core looked a tiny bit more steady without the need to ice an ECHL call-up.

San Jose took the lead early after a rush from Kyle Wood that drew the lackluster attempt at a defensive play from Andrej Sustr. Jaycob Megna tied up his man on the far side, but Max Jones – the closest forward back in support – failed to pick up Alexander True, who easily received the pass from Wood in front and put it high over Correau for the opening score just four minutes in.

The newly formed Kossila, Terry, Jones line had a golden opportunity a few minutes later, but a diving San Jose defender prevented Kossila from converting a rebound into what would have been a wide open net.

Lundestrom was centering De Leo and Fiore – taking Carrick’s spot while he was out serving a three game suspension assessed for the elbow to the head in the last game. His line and Thomson’s generated the best offensive zone pressure for the Gulls. San Diego finished the period generating 5 shots to the baby-sharks 16.

Notes on the opening frame: Sustr was bad on the first goal and almost gave up the puck for a 2nd. The Kid line was largely absent – they had two offensive zone opportunities and were invisible for the rest of the period.

Perhaps owing to the Kid Line being uncharacteristically silent – Eakins began the 2nd period by swapping Lundestrom for Kossila. The Kid line responded right away – getting a chance in front but could not convert.

Oleksy took a silly penalty on a failed hipcheck attempt that turned into a tripping call, but San Diego had no trouble killing it. Blandisi almost had his second shorthanded goal in as many games during the successful kill. The Thomson line followed that up with another good shift, but San Jose would convert again after the next TV Timeout off a broken play in which John McCarthy got to a loose puck down near the bottom of the right hash marks and threw it on net, where it deflected by Coreau.

The remainder of the 2nd period was mostly unexciting, but it should be noted that the Thomson line once again was the only one playing consistently. Every other Gull did not seem to be on the same page: passes were way off the mark, players made uncharacteristic mistakes and everyone seemed to be generally half asleep.

The third began with speed from the Kid’s line and San Diego attempting to gain some semblance of offensive pressure. San Jose was doing a very good job of clogging up passing lanes in the neutral zone and generally blocking any good entries – causing further frustration for the Gulls. It was only right that the Thomson line should be the first to get one – as Dostie took a pass from the corner, found open space and out-waited the goaltender to tuck one in for his first of the season after a Barracuda player lay prone after a collision earlier in the play.

Less than twenty seconds later after a face-off win and dump in, Joseph Blandisi intercepted a pass from the Barracuda goaltender from behind the net and swung it out to Chase De Leo for the quick conversion, and all of a sudden things were tied up.

San Diego failed to carry this momentum however, and San Jose hit back five minutes later – out muscling and winning puck battles to feed their blueline for a point shot that found its way through Coreau to retake the lead.

San Jose got another quick score five minutes later on an odd man rush, for which Oleksy seemed to be upset, and took a shot at a Barracuda player after the goal. He and the Baby-Sharks Viel were assessed matching roughing minors.

With five minutes left Eakins rolled the dice and put out four forwards with Benoit – essentially the first power play unit and then as time wound down – pulled Coreau and added a fifth forward. But San Jose won a puck battle in the neutral zone, gained the offensive zone, won a puck battle again and fed the puck to an open man in front of the empty net for the 5-2 lead in a play that pretty much summed up the Gulls’ night.

Troy Terry restarted his point streak with a snipe in front off a feed from Blandisi with a minute left but it was too little too late. Gulls fell 5-3.

Post-game: Eakins didnt mince words in calling his team “listless, soft and slow” and bag-skating them immediately after their return flight to San Diego the next day. Deservedly so.