2020-2021 Game 29: San Diego Gulls @ Tucson Roadrunners

Coach Dineen kept players fresh by bringing back in Max Golod, Jack Badini and Jamie Devane – sitting the veterans Vinni Lettieri and Andrew Agozzino as well as the newcomer Greg Printz. Defense pairings remained the same while Olle Eriksson Ek got the start.

Perhaps it was a sense of complacency carrying over from the almost too-easy eight goal outburst the night prior but the Gulls looked half asleep to start the action in Tucson. Naturally the Roadrunners opened the scoring by capitalizing on the Gulls lack of effort – Cameron Hebig collecting his own rebound and moving around a sprawled Eriksson Ek to make it 1-0.

The Roadrunners continued to control play as the Gulls failed to string more than a few passes together while making unforced errors – Axel Andersson got caught in a sticky situation trying to stick handle by a Roadrunners player but thankfully Eriksson Ek bailed him out on the resulting chance. Then Trevor Zegras was found to be too casual with the puck at the Gulls blue-line – leading to another Roadrunners chance. The added possession and momentum lead to Power Play opportunities for the Roadrunners and it did not take long for Michael Carcone to get yet another marker with the man-advantage. 2-0 Roadrunners.

The Gulls did manage to get some chances to close out the period – BO Groulx and Bryce Kindopp combined on a shorthanded two on one rush and Trevor Zegras made an amazing pass from the corner out front to Andrew Poturalski but the score remained 2-0 as teams headed to the first intermission with the Gulls trailing in shots 15-8.

Things went from bad to worse to start the second as Tucson added to their lead by tallying another goal – again through Carcone. 3-0 Tucson.

San Diego were given their first Power Play of the night when Axel Andersson drew a call in the Gulls zone, there didn’t appear to be a whole lot of structure or plan for the man advantage and it wasn’t until the second unit came on that San Diego got some real chances but it was too little too late as time ran out and teams returned to even strength.

Jacob Perreault appeared to have a target on his back as he was pasted against the boards in the Tucson far corner and was slow to get up. He had received similar treatment in the exact same corner toward the end of the first.

The Gulls appeared to finally be getting some semblance of sustained attack with six minutes left in the period but Tucson quickly snuffed that out and went right back to dominating the Gulls in their zone as the shots continued to tick up.

The second coming to a close with the Gulls trailing in shots 32-15 and down 3-0.

The third period was much of the same, as San Diego tried time and again to get some semblance of momentum going but were stifled by the home team.

Jan Jenik made it 4-0 off a low wrist shot that fooled Eriksson Ek through traffic as San Diego struggled to get any sense of urgency going.

BO Groulx did manage to spoil the shut-out bid with less than three minutes remaining but the game ended in another uninspiring loss, a total let down from the night before.

Post Game Notes:

Nothing to see here

I dont really know what to say. Nobody really stood out as having a good game. The entire team played like they didn’t want to be there. You could see Eriksson Ek sensed his teams lack of enthusiasm as he made plays that appeared desperate – including trying to keep the play going in the face of oncoming Roadrunners fore-checkers when he probably should have frozen it.

Zegras update

Offensively he had some good moments. Defensively – still yeesh. Overall? If he really wanted to he could have taken that entire game over. It really doesn’t feel like he is completely dialed in. Just biding his time for the end of season call-up that we all know is coming once fans are allowed back into Honda Center. He isn’t the same guy the Gulls had to start the season, there is a lack of motivation.

Training wheel test fail

It made sense to use the second game of a back to back to give some guys a rest while allowing others to get some much needed ice-time. But I did question taking more than one important veteran out of the line-up with the Gulls leadership already missing Carrick and De Leo. Sure they had possibly enough in the line-up to have settled things down with the likes of Trevor Carrick, Keegan Lowe and Andrew Poturalski but it didn’t seem to help much. I will note that Josh Mahura has been wearing an A for the last two games which is great to see.