Game 52: San Diego Gulls @ Stockton Heat

After suffering a disappointing loss in Tuscon the Gulls headed to Stockton hoping to regain the kind of swagger that had lead to their previous three game win streak. Coach Kevin Dineen made no changes to the line-up or lines from the last game, choosing to patiently allow chemistry to develop with the newcomers.

San Diego started out much better than they looked against Tuscon and drew back to back Power Plays to spend an entire six minutes with the man advantage as the second call became a double minor when Isac Lundestrom was high-sticked in the mouth by Byron Froese.

Although the Gulls did finally generate some chances through the Power Play unit that featured Chris Mueller in front of the net and Josh Mahura at the point. The other unit featuring new-comer Persson and recently reassigned Troy Terry, struggled to get set or put any kind of dangerous opportunity on the Stockton net.

• Kid doing a Fortnite dance during a break
• AHLTV scoreboard covering the screen during play
• #BENOITSMASH
• #DREWSMASH
• Snipe City Drew
• Brendan Guhle takes a bad penalty
• Trevor Carrick takes a penalty at the worst time possible
• Maple Syrup Bros
• Captain Sam Scores!
• Limoges Lets it GOOOOO!
• #PUREPERREAULT
• Spot Jeff Bush and the hat
• Dubious call goes against the Gulls
• Jacob Perreault draws a penalty
• Tropp The Mic – Style Goal
• Zilch hot mic interlude – fastfood chat or beatboxing

Stockton were given a Power Play of their own as Chris Mueller was called for Hooking when Andy Zilch was commenting that it had looked like Mueller himself had been hooked. The Gulls killed the first portion of the penalty but just as the second unit hit the ice and I noticed Dineen appeared to have paired Persson with Hakanpaa I was starting to wonder out loud what he was doing when the Heat picked apart the Gulls defensive box and executed a much to easy one-timer from the slot. 1-0 Heat.

Play was middling for the next few minutes before Chase De Leo took matters into his own hands, receiving a puck with speed and heading down the right wing before swooping in on the Stockton net, firing a shot on Gillies that the Heat goaltender deflected out to the slot which the La Mirada native then collected and moved in on him again for two further chances. Gillies was able to turn those aside also and the Heat then came back with a counter rush that forced Stolarz to respond in similar fashion.

Blake Pietela continued the Gulls brief spurt of forward momentum by joining Josh Mahura on a partial odd-man rush, finding time and space on the left wing to measure and fire a shot but then electing at the last moment to zip a shot-pass to the second year defender that was one-touched by the prone Heat goaltender on a brilliant play to tie the game. 1-1.

San Diego headed to the first intermission ahead in shots 12-8 thanks in most part to the six minutes of power play time, the shot map looking good for San Diego – if they could start to finish their chances.

It took less than two minutes for the Gulls to receive another Power Play and just another thirty seconds for Sam Carrick to get a golden opportunity down low as he came in on the Stockton net with speed and space. Trevor Gillies came up with the stop but as San Diego fought to regain the puck Troy Terry was called for hooking.

Teams played conservative during the four on four but San Diego held much of the possession before Stockton set to work on a brief man advantage. San Diego were able to kill the penalty but did endure some anxious moments before turning things around and getting things going in the Stockton zone once again. Securing another Power Play of their own as Zac Leslie held Chris Widemans stick – the two had a short tussle after the infraction but the Gulls came away with the man advantage.

This time the Gulls Power Play delivered as Mahura, Lundestrom and Mueller completed a perfect tic-tac-toe passing play – finishing with Mueller hitting Broadhurst as the trigger man in the slot to give the Gulls their first lead of the game. 2-1 Gulls.

It was the Heats turn to get back to back Power Plays as first Scott Moldenhauer was called for interference in the San Diego zone, a penalty that San Diego killed with much less effort and then just as the Carrick, Terry and Pietela line were looking likely to get another one by Gillies, Pietela was called for high sticking in the Stockton zone.

San Diego killed this penalty with even more ease and got a shorthanded chance from Sam Carrick in the process, they then headed right back to the attack.

Troy Terry appeared to be slowly getting back to his old-self as he made a smart pass into a soft area for Carrick to collect behind the Stockton net but as the Gulls Captain went to pressure the Heat defender Byron Froese he air-mailed it over the glass to give San Diego yet another Power Play.

Once again the Gulls man-advantage did not disappoint as Max Comtois found himself in space on the right side and fired a hard shot which was heading wide of the Heat net before hitting off of Chris Mueller and in. 3-1 Gulls.

Things got heated to end the period as the Heat pressured Stolarz in the dying seconds and once again Chris Wideman was at the center of a post-whistle scuffle. When the dust settled it was deemed Froese would be the lone player assessed a minor for slashing, giving San Diego another Power Play to start the third period.

San Diego heading to the second intermission up 3-1 but down by one shot 22-21 after forty minutes. The shot map for the second period indicating that although San Diego managed to keep most Heat shots to the perimeter they created a lot more chances over the second set of twenty.

The third period did not start well for San Diego as Stockton not only killed the minor to Froese, but score a shorthanded goal just 29 seconds into it as Max Comtois sent a 50/50 pass back to the point that was picked off and led to a two on one rush, Eetu Tuuola firing a shot top shelf over a helpless Stolarz. 3-2 Gulls.

Things settled down after that and the game flowed much smoother with few stoppages or penalties taken.

With five minutes left in the action San Diego settled into their eighth Power Play of the night. Despite the second unit having the better of all of the opportunities on the night thus far – Coach Dineen elected to give the first unit the entire two minutes. To be fair they didn’t look as bad as they had throughout the game and actually held the Stockton zone for much of it while creating some better and more clear cut opportunities than their previous outings but they could not capitalize.

Stockton started to pressure and Joel Persson made a stellar play to break up a pass down low and then was tripped as he attempted to skate it back out of harms way to give San Diego their ninth Power Play of the night, again Dineen went with the first unit almost exclusively for the full two minutes and again they did not convert.

Stockton pulled Gillies with a minute and a half to go and the Gulls frantically collapsed to prevent any shot from getting to close to Stolarz. Max Comtois jumped on a loose puck on his own side of the San Diego blue line and fired a perfect shot that went sailing down the ice and into the vacated Stockton net to make it 4-2 Gulls with ten seconds left in regulation.

San Diego taking the win on the road but still having to settle for fifth place given Ontario beat Tuscon 8-4 in their match up tonight.

Post Game Notes:

To PP or not to PP – The second unit consisting of Mueller, Mahura, Comtois and I think Lundestrom and Kloos was by far the more consistent of the two Power Play units tonight. The first unit you could tell was still very much out of sync as new comer Joel Persson and recent reassignee Troy Terry didn’t seem to know where to move to or where their team-mates were likely to be. They got better as the night progressed but it feels a little bit like the start of the season all over again in terms of relearning new chemistry.

Terry still not quite back – Troy Terry again did not set the game on fire as we have seen he is capable of doing in the past but he was better. He was looking to find line-mates with smart passes and appears to be slowly but surely adjusting back to life with the Gulls. He had two shots on the night and was on the ice for two of the four San Diego gulls.