Game 22: San Diego Gulls @ Colorado Eagles

Hot off their less than convincing win over the Eagles the night before, the Gulls hoped to bounce back and get back to their high scoring ways. They were buoyed by the return of Blake Pietila to the line-up as he returned from the Flu. Patrick Sieloff drew back in while Scott Moldenhauer came out but still no sign of Hunter Drew as it was announced he would miss a third straight game as a healthy scratch.

From the opening face-off it felt like Isac Lundestrom might be in for one of his better nights as he executed back to back spin moves to exit his zone, his line then went on to get a few low-danger chances on Werner. The Max Jones line followed that up with a close in chance as he chased down and stripped the puck from an Eagles defender but the shot was deflected over the net. Colorado fought back and got the games opening score as a pass in front to a man all-alone set the home-crowd alight and brought down the avalanche of soft-toys on Teddy Bear Toss Night. 1-0 Eagles.

It took some fifteen minutes or so to get all the Teddys tidied up and as play finally began again, it was eerily similar to how things went in the game just the night prior. Colorado controlled play and possession, generating chance after chance while tiring the Gulls on shift after shift. Shots were 8-0 at one point and it was looking to be a long night.

Just as it felt the Colorado neutral zone trap and unwillingness to grant any space to the Gulls would continue to choke the life out of the game an energetic rush from Max Jones seemed to open things up momentarily. Jones was stopped but on the following shift a two on one rush lead by Gates Jr gave the Gulls a game-tying score as Daniel Sprong scored off the perfect cross-ice feed from the Ducks former 2015 third round pick. 1-1.

Colorado responded by re-exerting their dominance and again reverting to choking any life out of the game. San Diego made matters worse for themselves when Jacob Larsson was called for Cross-Checking as he frantically defended a three on one rush after his defensive partner Jani Hakanpaa got caught in no-mans land. During the penalty killing sequence a Chase De Leo clearance was deemed to go out on the full and the Gulls were down another man. Despite the Colorado Power Play being ranked fourth from last in the league, preventing a five on three goal was too much to ask as the Eagles were able to open a lane right off the face-off win and fire one by Stolarz for the 2-1 lead.

San Diego were able to kill the remainder of the penalty and tried to get back to their transition speed game, once again Max Jones playing a huge part in that and in the final minute of the period a goal mouth scramble with Jones in the center of resulted in four different Eagles players wrestling, jostling and throwing freebie punches at him. Because AHL officials don’t usually give Jones the benefit of the doubt I was ready to not be surprised when nothing resulted from the gross mistreatment of the San Diego forward but was pleasantly astonished to see the Gulls rightfully received a Power Play.

The period ended with the Gulls still on the Power-play for another minute and forty seconds to start in the middle frame but being down on the scoreboard by one and in shots 17-11. The shot map dictating just how much Colorado ran things for the first twenty minutes.

The second period took a few minutes to get going but once it did, it flowed as quickly as it did in the previous game the night before.

Things opened up and the action started go back and forth with odd-man rush being stopped and counter-rushed . With neither goaltender giving quarter things started to get chippy as players took out their frustrations with some heavy hitting.

A Gulls Power Play as a result of one such tit-for-tat sequence of hitting gave San Diego some life and they followed that up with back to back shifts in the Colorado zone but Werner made the stop when asked to and the period ended with the Eagles still holding the one goal lead and shots 29-22.

The shot map showing how the Gulls did manage to come back somewhat but unable to get the equalizer.

The third period began with Max Jones taking a slashing call as he continued to endear himself to the Colorado faithful. During the penalty kill a high rebound brought the attention of several players and the small Sheldon Dries attempted to lacrosse style swat it out of the air but his stick smacked Brendan Guhle in the face instead to give the Gulls an abbreviated power play. Once again Werner spoiled any chances and prevented the Gulls from converting and on an additional man-advantage awarded to San Diego when Antoine Morand was tripped coming through the neutral zone, he was the same impenetrable wall.

As the period went on the Eagles appeared to be reverting to a more conservative style, allowing the Gulls to come through the neutral zone with more ease than earlier in the game. But no matter how many chances they got, Werner was always there to make the stop.

The Gulls made one last frantic push in the final minute but Colorado were able to prevent any close in chances, finally icing it in the final few seconds. As much like San Diego were able to nab two points thanks to a standout performance from Kevin Boyle the night before, the Eagles were able to repay the favor behind their Swedish rookie net-minder.