Game 1: San Diego Gulls @ Bakersfield Condors

In the opening game of action for the 2019-2020 season Coach Dineen did not follow my script and went with Anthony Stolarz to start. He also arranged the lines slightly different from what I had thought they might be. The lines were as follows:

Comtois – Lundestrom – Tropp

Dostie – Kloos – Pietila

Kopacka – Carrick – Poturalski

Sprong – De Leo – Sherwood

Benoit – Wideman

Mahura – Hakanpaa

Sieloff – Drew

I got one of the forward lines as well as one of the defensive pairings and I was right about Broadhurst, Martinsen and Gates Jr being the scratches though! Sadly Morand was also scratched.

The first period was… not a pretty sight. As I mentioned on twitter; the Gulls looked like a group of players who were not familiar with each-other at all and I guess that is essentially the case given all of the changes that occurred over the off-season. Anthony Stolarz appears athletic and his style reminds me of an early John Gibson with how much he moves to challenge (which was sometimes a little too aggressively) on both goals that Bakersfield scored he took himself out of position while making the initial save.

Daniel Sprong made some very nice looking carries but looked as though he was trying to do too much at times. No other Gulls player really stood out except for maybe Sherwood, with good speed and hustle to get some of the Gulls eight shots on net in the first period.

San Diego looked much better to start the middle frame, controlling play and generating chances. They were eventually rewarded with a goal by Kiefer Sherwood; as the second year player out of Ohio followed up a chance by Daniel Sprong and put in the rebound at the left side post to bring the Gulls back within one.

2-1 Condors.

The Gulls continued their strong play but did have the odd defensive lapse, including soon after the Sherwood goal when the Poturalksi line attempted to capitalize on the momentum from the tally but found themselves puck-watching in the San Diego zone as the Yamamoto line zipped the puck around for an open opportunity in the slot that rang off the crossbar.

The period finished with the Gulls still down but clawing back the shots to make it an even 19-19 after forty minutes.

Bakersfield began the third period with a push and Anthony Stolarz was forced to make yet another impressive post-to-post stop on the penalty kill as the Condors seemingly were able to thread passes across the Gulls box at will but San Diego came back with some pressure of their own.

The Gulls then proceeded to carry play and possession for the remainder of the third period as they searched for the equalizer. There were some standout plays from several players including a coast-to-coast carry from Max Comtois as he deeked through four Condors players on his own into the Bakersfield zone.

Simon Benoit also stood out as making a very savvy veteran play while the Gulls were under pressure in their own zone he calmly protected the puck with his body and cleared it from harms way with just one hand on the stick.

Anthony Stolarz redeemed himself and would have been the difference had the Gulls been able to find a game tying score, making several game saving stops but unfortunately as time ticked down – San Diego could not get one past the Condors Starrett. San Diego dropping their season opener 2-1 on the road.

Post Game Notes:

Sherwood was again great, you can always count on him and his consistency. He led all Gulls in shots with five and from theahl.com Shot Map you can see he had the majority of the high danger chances from the slot.

Sprong as previously mentioned made some nice carries but also as previously mentioned didn’t appear to be looking for team-mates too often, preferring to try it on his own.

Poturalski did not impress me much. It was hard to get a good look at what the key qualities to his game are – I guess the best play I saw him make was a zone entry with speed on the Gulls second Power Play in the third period but other than that he missed several passes and seemed to turn the puck over more often than create a play with it.

Kopacka looked good and surprised me with how much more defensively responsible he looked compared to last season. Alex Dostie impressed me also, he has definitely turned a corner and I can see a lot of maturity in his game.

Drew had a few shots from the point and had one nasty collision at center ice during the second period, he also made a few nice carries throughout the game. Overall a fairly decent first pro game for the Rookie out of Kingston, Ontario.

Josh Mahura got better as the game went on, he definitely looked more polished and composed. The Gulls will need to rely on his rushing ability. By the same token Hakanpaa surprised me with some of the carries he made, he wasn’t as fast as Mahura but he did have some quickness to his game when with the puck (without it…. yeah there were some moments).

The Gulls play next in San Jose next Friday the 11th at 7pm.