Game 2: San Diego Gulls @ San Jose Barracuda

In the second game of the regular season the Gulls hoped to continue the style of play that saw them dominate the second half of their opening game fixture against the Condors the week before.

With the call-ups of Isac Lundestrom and Max Comtois earlier in the week it also meant the season debut for Brent Gates Jr. and the professional debut for Antoine Morand. Both were slotted in on the fourth line with Corey Tropp while Dineen kept the three other lines the same, there were no changes to the defensive pairings while Anthony Stolarz was given the start in net once again.

Play was mostly wide open to start and Stolarz was forced to make a game-saving stop on a two on one in the first two minutes of action before the Gulls attempted to settle into their own rhythm. They managed to get some opportunities from the Pietila line as well as Sam Carrick before three straight penalties in a seven minute span quickly undid them. The Barracuda scoring on their second man-advantage opportunity on a point shot that was deflected in front by Letunov and then following that up with some pressure in the Gulls zone; forcing a turnover on their breakout to allow Viel to have an easy chance from the left hash-marks to quickly make it 2-0.

With the Barracuda carrying all of the momentum the Gulls could seemingly only stand and watch as the home team believed they had scored yet again after a odd-man rush on the San Diego net resulted in the puck going behind Stolarz but it was emphatically waved off by the nearside official as being kicked in. San Jose would score less than a minute later anyway when Hunter Drew was called for interference, the home-team putting another one by the Gulls net-minder on the man advantage with less than two minutes left in the period.

A very disappointing start for the Gulls which was rather accurately portrayed in the shot map after the first twenty minutes.

San Diego picked things up in the second period and controlled play for the first ten minutes, coming close on several chances generated from the power play as Daniel Sprong drew a call off a rush.

Just when it seemed the Gulls may have finally started to wake up; turning the tide on shots on net to bring themselves within three of the Barracuda total. San Jose swung things back in their favor once again, breaking up a Gulls chance and heading the other way on an odd man rush that San Diego failed to diffuse on the back-check. 4-0 Barracuda.

Poturalski and Kopacka had the Gulls best chances with the man advantage during the middle frame and Chase De Leo had a breakaway chance that was denied in the final three minutes.

Shots were 34 to 18 for the clearly more organized and familiar-with-each-other home team after forty minutes.

San Diego didn’t really fare much better in the final period. They had another two power plays with again some looks but they could not finish until their third opportunity in the final frame when they finally broke through on a cannon of a wrist shot from the point from Hunter Drew.

Sadly the Barracuda got one back less than a minute later when Drew could not retrieve a bad pass from Sieloff off the boards and Jonny Brodzinski went in alone to make it 5-1.

Post Game Notes:

Who would have thought a team that had a sixty percent turnover over in the off-season would struggle to find chemistry and rhythm early in the following year? I have faith that the Gulls can and will eventually turn things around at some point this season but its going to be a rough few weeks to start. Here are some bright points from tonight’s game as I saw them.

Jack Kopacka was the best Gull not called Stolarz, you could tell he was completely engaged where some players didn’t appear to be all there. I mentioned before the season began that he would need to step up and assume a bigger role and he has shown thus far that he is willing to do that. He had a team high four shots on net and leads the Gulls through two games with six in total.

Daniel Sprong had one good rush that resulted in a penalty call but I have been mostly uninspired by his play so far. He had a one on one opportunity in the second period that he could and should have done more with, but instead he curled around and looked for support before firing a less than 50/50 pass into the slot that was easily intercepted by back-checking Barracuda.. He should be dominating the AHL but he does not appear to be completely motivated.

Antoine Morand didn’t have quite the debut I had hoped for him, he was on the ice for the Viel turnover goal and didn’t particularly stand out right away except for a rush he lead midway through the second period where he displayed very good speed. He did seem to get better as the game went on, getting another opportunity on the penalty kill late in the third period. His strength at five on five was not immediately evident however.

Hunter Drew demonstrated what the Ducks can expect from him in the future with his goal on the Power Play. It really was the kind of wrist shot that could be mistaken for a slap-shot in terms of sheer power. It is a weapon that should be utilized. On the bad side, he and Sieloff were on the ice for two of the San Jose even strength goals…

Through these past two games it feels as though the Gulls were sorely lacking either a game breaking talent who would be able to flip momentum on his own – like a Troy Terry – or a steady clutch-scoring veteran like Adam Cracknell or Eric Fehr in years past. Will the club go and seek out such a player again if things continue to get worse? Watch this space.