Game 26: San Diego Gulls @ Ontario Reign

As injuries and illness continued to hit both the Gulls and the Ducks, San Diego re-signed Brett Pollock on a Professional Tryout as well as inking Kyle Thomas to a similar temporary agreement. Chris Wideman, Brendan Guhle and Alex Broadhurst were announced as being out with the Flu, while Lundestrom, Jones and Sprong remained in Anaheim to cover the spat of injuries and influenza hitting the Ducks.

It took Justin Kloos all of eight seconds to get the Gulls the early lead, taking advantage of a rare Cal Peterson mistake.

Ontario then quickly turned momentum as they successfully matched the Imama line against the Gulls fourth line and kept San Diego from escaping their zone, eventually drawing a penalty on Hunter Drew for delay of game.

Anthony Stolarz faced an onslaught from the Reign for the next nine minutes before Corey Tropp drew a hooking call in the Ontario zone to give us our first look at the San Diego Power Play without Chris Wideman. Hunter Drew would serve in Wideman’s spot and did manage to get some looks but the Gulls mostly stagnant man-advantage continued to be so as the Reign were able to kill off the penalty without much trouble.

The teams exchanged chances as play returned to five on five until Jack Kopacka and Kiefer Sherwood linked up to turn the puck over in the Ontario zone and draw a call when Kopacka was tripped after making a pass.

Once again Ontario were able to kill the infraction but San Diego looked a lot better with the man advantage and just as time expired, Josh Mahura found space at open ice and rushed the puck through the entire Ontario defense to head in on net. As he drew everybody to him and Peterson made the initial stop on his chance, the puck came free to the point and an semi-open Jani Hakanpaa. The veteran Finnish defender then stepped into a booming slapshot that found its way through the traffic created by Mahura and by Peterson to give the Gulls a 2-0 lead.

Time wound down for the remaining two minutes in the period and San Diego headed to the first intermission up 2-0 and ahead in shots 15-7, the shot map showing the shot volume favoring the Gulls but the three high danger chances for the Reign being possibly three too many if they hoped to keep their lead.

Early in the second period Hakanpaa gave the Gulls another boost as he drew a holding call on Lance Bouma behind the San Diego net. The man advantage showed definite signs of improvement, coming close on some attempted passes across the box but coming just short before they could connect.

Ontario quietly eased themselves back into the game, slowly building momentum as they earned back to back penalties on the Gulls.

Kiefer Sherwood showing just how much he was missed by tag-teaming with Antoine Morand to deny the Reign of any shots or getting set at all on the second iteration of their man advantage.

Things started to open up from there with both teams opting to stretch the ice, Josh Mahura found himself on a two on one but was stopped by Peterson before Stolarz came up with a huge save of his own after the Gulls were exposed by a three on one counter rush. The former Flyers second rounder lunging from right to left to stop Mikey Eyssimont with his glove as Jaret Anderson-Dolan had space to find him at the backdoor.

Play became messy and chippy as time wound down in the middle frame and the Gulls headed to the second intermission still holding the 2-0 lead but surrendering the lead in shots 24-19, out-shot 17-4 on the period. The shot map showing Stolarz coming up huge on two major chances down low and one high danger chance in the slot.

The third began with the Reign making a push to start but the Gulls ultimately taking advantage of Ontario committing the extra man to the attack as they all of a sudden found more space and were able to execute on some brilliant set-plays across the open ice.

Kiefer Sherwood made his return to the ice count as he completed a one-timer setup from Chase De Leo. The La Mirada native began the play by bouncing the puck off the boards to himself then shifted around the defender to go in on a two on one with Kiefer Sherwood where he smartly pulled up and sent a perfect sauce pass across to the Ohio native to slam by Peterson to make it 3-0.

A few minutes later Josh Mahura joined the party when he finished off a dangerous Gulls attack courtesy of Alex Dostie almost completing a wrap around as the former Regina Pat collected the puck from Kloos after Peterson made the stop on Dostie and deeked wide to send it over the sprawling goaltender to make it 4-0.

The Reign responded by jumping on a miscommunication between Sherwood, De Leo and Stolarz as the net-minder left the puck behind the net for one of the two forwards but the Reign pounced and fired a pass out front to Bouma who easily deposited it to make it 4-1.

Play started to get chippy again and Patrick Sieloff earned the love of the Toyota Arena faithful as he leveled Lance Bouma with a clean shoulder to shoulder hit along the left side boards. The resulting mini-line-brawl that resulted gave the Gulls a Power Play and they finally got one with the man advantage as a Hunter Drew point shot was tipped on the way by Antoine Morand to put them up 5-1.

Ontario were given a Power Play soon after but San Diego easily killed the infraction as it appeared that the home team were more interested in finishing checks then getting even on the scoreboard.

The Gulls added further insult to injury as a breakaway from Sideroff as he left the box was denied but the speedy winger stayed with the play and setup Dostie who was also stopped but the Gulls smaller forwards continued to buzz the Ontario net, getting chance after chance on Peterson in a circular carousel of attack until Dostie finally got one by the beleaguered Reign net-minder to make it 6-1.

Ontario didn’t really seem that interested in putting together any semblance of a come back or points for pride for the remainder of the game but San Diego avoided any further altercations as the clock wound down. The Gulls coming away 6-1 winners to move ahead of the Reign in the division by points percentage and move to .500.

Post Game Notes:

Welcome Back! I had predicted that Kiefer Sherwood should be due back by this Dec 28th Ontario encounter and sure enough, there he was! He instantly improves the Gulls penalty kill while providing a steady hand for any critical game situations such as preserving a one-goal lead. It helps that the chemistry he had with De Leo is evidently still there also.

Morand Heating Up With points in his last two games, Antoine Morand is starting to get rewarded on the scoreboard for the hard work he has been putting in night in and night out. Of all the Gulls – he is the only one to be consistently on an upward trend all season, I can’t wait to see what the second half of the season has in store.

Race To The Finish We are almost halfway through the schedule now and the Gulls have just landed themselves in a playoff spot by points percentage after their initial rough start to the season. Most impressively they have been doing the job while missing call-ups and players lost to injuries or illness so in addition to the reinforcements expected back eventually as well as the Black-Aces set to join them at the conclusion of their Junior seasons in Bo Groulx and Brayden Tracey it should be an exciting finish.