2021-2022 Game 27: San Diego Gulls @ San Jose Barracuda

Hitting the road and hoping to earn another two points in their effort to climb back up the Pacific division, the Gulls headed to San Jose with a newly returned BO Groulx to their line-up.

Marotte made his fourth straight start while Max Golod drew out for Groulx to draw in. Confusingly Elvenes and Limoges were put on separate lines after showing obvious chemistry the previous two games.

First Period:

Despite the emotional win over the Canucks it wasn’t a great first period for the Gulls in their first action since the weekend.

They let the Barracuda take the game to them and the home team inevitably opened the scoring at the midway point of the period on the back of some poor coverage from the Gulls down-low, allowing an unmarked Jake McGrew to take a pass from behind the net and one-time it by Marotte. 1-0 Barracuda.

One sporadic scoring chance for the Gulls came in the form of Brayden Tracey having a partial break but his shot from the top of the circles was stopped.

The Gulls heading to the first intermission down by one and down in shots 15-8.

Second Period: San Jose Barracuda 1 – San Diego Gulls 0

San Diego looked better to start the second. Not much better. But better. They did start to gain some momentum with back to back shifts in the San Jose zone until finally breaking through on a great puck recovery and pass from BO Groulx to Trevor Carrick at the point. The younger Carrick brother blasting a shot by Barracuda goaltender Sam Harvey. 1-1 tie game.

The teams traded abbreviated Power Play chances for the next few minutes before the Gulls re-established their momentum and took the lead on a nice play by Lucas Elvenes to take a pass from behind him, gain the zone, make a move into the center-slot before shifting it downlow to Bryce Kindopp whilst being tripped. Kindopp then finished the pretty play with some deft touches to avoid a poke-check and slide it by Harvey. 2-1 Gulls.

San Jose came back with a big push in the final few minutes of the period, leading to the Gulls going a man down with just over a minute and a half left in the frame when Brent Gates was found guilt of hooking. Things got worse when Nik Brouillard was called for cross-checking as he attempted to prevent a Barracuda tidal rush in front of the Gulls net. BO Groulx did an amazing job of breaking up passes up high – disrupting three in a row but could not get his stick on the puck to clear. The Barracuda capitalizing with a rising shot from the point to tie things up with seconds remaining in the period. 2-2 tie game.

Teams heading to the second intermission knotted up at two and San Diego creeping up in shots but still behind 25-17 in total while being out shot 10-9 on the period.

Third Period: San Diego Gulls 2 – San Jose Barracuda 2

San Diego started the period killing the remainder of penalties assessed at the end of the second but San Jose continued their momentum and enjoyed the majority of possession until the Gulls were finally able to start turning things around eight minutes in.

Danny O’Regan was absolutely robbed by the glove of Sam Harvey on a chance in front when Alex Limoges fed him a loose puck after a strong forecheck but the Gulls continued to press from there.

Things quickly shifted following a familiar narrative as the Barracuda drew back to back calls on the Gulls to give themselves a five on three for a full minute and eighteen seconds but San Diego overcame the lengthy disadvantage with some hard work and timely stick work from BO Groulx, Bryce Kindopp and Trevor Carrick when he came out of the box for his initial minor.

The Gulls regained their mojo and took back the lead when Greg Printz showed some nice hands on a smooth zone entry then drifting a deft pass down low to Alex Limoges who patiently out-waited Harvey to sneak it behind him. 3-2 Gulls.

The Barracuda pulled Harvey with under a minute remaining but the Gulls shut down the neutral zone, BO Groulx capping his strong night by hitting the empty net from his own blue line in the dying seconds. The Gulls winning 4-2 and taking two points to start their four game road trip that sees them heading to Stockton next.

Post Game Notes:

Groulx The Great

The Gulls would not have won this game without BO Groulx making his much needed return to the line-up. The very one-sided penalty count saw him step up to shut things down in the face-off circle on the penalty kill while also getting in lanes to get key blocks and break up passes. He also helped drive the offense and was the only Gulls player with a multi-point night.

MIA

I got asked about some MIA players on twitter tonight and I am sorry that the only information I have is my assumptions – but the reason we have not seen Jacob Perreault in the line-up lately is most likely because he got hurt in Anaheim. He hasn’t been mentioned as being in COVID protocol from any reports I have seen and the last time he saw him was before he got called up to make his NHL debut. Here is hoping he isn’t out too long… and on that note, the other player I was asked about is Axel Andersson. At this point you could be forgiven for thinking Andersson had gone back to Sweden, we haven’t heard or had any update about him in some time. Again my best guess is he is hurt, but has suffered some sort of long term injury like a fractured ligament. He had a very bad leg injury in his final year of Juniors I believe so it could be a re-aggravation of that.

The breaking of the fellowship

No sooner do I write about how good Limoges and Elvenes (AKA Legolas and Gimli) looked together and they get broken up in the very next game. Sure the Gulls won but for F’s sake – you could even see in the brief amount of time they were on the ice together in this game during a delayed call, they were dangerous. No if’s or buts about it. Dangerous. Not to discount the nice setup from Printz on the Limoges goal but then again they were not even supposed to be on the same line according to the posted lines. Just put them back together please Coach Bouchard, if it aint broke don’t fix it.