Game 51: San Diego Gulls vs San Antonio Rampage – Feb 23

Sam Steel had been called up earlier that day and Brian Gibbons assigned – however Gibbons did not arrive in time to make it into the line up. While it was announced Josh Mahura joined the injured list, along with Jake Dotchin, Luke Gazdic and Deven Sideroff. Corey Tropp and Andrej Sustr were healthy scratched due to the veteran rule and Jeff Glass made his 8th straight start.
Justin Kloos made his return from a six game absence due to illness.

Neither team appeared willing to give any quarter as by the midway point of the first period, shots were still five a piece. Then at the seven minute mark a San Antonio breakaway was stopped by Glass and immediately sent Kiefer Sherwood the other way who was also stopped. From there the flood gates opened and both teams traded chances for the remainder of the first twenty minutes.

The second period was much like the first, with teams feeling each-other out while attempting to keep anything from in close. Play was halted at around about the twelve minute mark when Scott Moldenhauer took a puck to the face from a point shot and he left the ice to attend to the injury.

Soon after the Rampage upped the pressure and forced the Gulls into taking several back to back penalties. Glass did not look good as he let in consecutive short-side goals through two separate penalty kills, the second of which was a twenty second 5 on 3.
San Diego fought back and started to gather momentum through back to back great shifts from the De Leo and Eaves lines, coming very close but unable to get to loose pucks amidst goal mouth scrambles.

Then some strong fore checking behind the net was followed by a pass to Kevin Roy charging down the slot and the winger fired a wide low shot through Coreau to bring the Gulls within one and wake up the home crowd.

From the face off immediately after the goal, Simon Benoit took a pass and skated the puck into the Rampage zone, suddenly finding space he wasted no time in accelerating wide and firing it through Coreau to tie the game within seconds.

San Diego rode the momentum through the remainder of the middle frame but could not get another past the former Gulls net-minder.

Expecting to continue their onslaught as the third period began, a rare mistake from Trevor Murphy resulted in a cross ice pass that Glass was unable to stop and the Rampage were back in front early.

San Antonio then clogged the neutral zone, making it difficult for the Gulls to get any kind of sustained pressure and forcing them to dump and chase. In one sequence a San Antonio shot was kicked out to the right side with no defensive cover and a Rampage forward thought he had a sure goal but Glass dived across Hasek style to make the stop.

The Gulls responded with urgency, getting in on the fore check with reckless abandon and were rewarded when Ben Street won a puck battle on the half wall – sending it to the front where both Patrick Eaves and Sam Carrick were battling with a lone out of position Rampage defender, Carrick managed to swat the bouncing puck first and got it by Coreau for the tying goal.

A few minutes later the Gulls rode the momentum of the goal as Kevin Roy took a pass at the blue line and drove to the net, firing a shot that bounced to Adam Cracknell and he slammed it home to give the Gulls their first lead.

Shortly afterward; Patrick Eaves proved too difficult for the Rampage to contain and drew a holding call as he brought the puck down low behind the San Antonio net, the Gulls would fail to convert on the man advantage but played it conservative, icing two blue-liners during the two minutes. With less than two minutes remaining the Rampage pulled Coreau for the extra attacker but Justin Kloos forced a turnover at the red line and breezed past the lone defender back to make it 5-3.

San Antonio did make things interesting when they took advantage of some shoddy defense in San Diego’s zone to make it 5-4 with twenty seconds left but San Diego held on to take the gutsy win.