Looking to vastly improve on their horrible performance of the night before the Gulls came in with a fresh slate and some changes to the line-up. Lucas Elvenes and Jack Badini were sat in favour or Nathan Larose and Vincent Marleau. Nik Brouillard was moved up to forward again to compensate for the incoming LaRose.
Surprisingly, Lukas Dostal was given the chance to redeem his poor start to yesterdays game and I guess we would learn more later whether or not the Elvenes scratch was due to illness or injury or not.
First Period:
The Eagles took just over two minutes to strike first, beating Dostal on a rebound after some fierce fore-checking in the Gulls zone. 1-0 Eagles.
San Diego responded by holding possession for much of the remainder of the period while also leading in shots – with some Power Plays and Penalty Kills thrown in.
The Gulls best chance of the period came while on the penalty kill as Vinni Lettieri read a neutral zone play and pick-pocketed the puck from an Eagles player before going in alone on Colorado netminder Justus Annunen. Unfortunately he was stopped.
The Eagles added further insult when they added to their lead against the flow of play. With the Gulls enjoying the advantage in shots and possession an Eagles foray into their zone with multiple shots on Dostal during the same sequence ended with the puck once again behind him. The Gulls lack of defensive support in front the main factor for the tally as San Diego were outnumbered in front.
San Diego heading to the first intermission down by two and it potentially looking like another losing effort as they ended up trailing 11-10 in shots by periods end.
Second Period: Colorado Eagles 2 – San Diego Gulls 0
In another fast moving but low scoring period the Gulls appeared to be enjoying the better of possession and shots but again could not get anything of high quality at five on five.
The Eagles also did a much better job of shutting down the Gulls Power Play as they successfully killed a holding call to Jean-Luc Foudy before adding to their lead via their own man advantage with Nik Brouillard in the box for a cross-checking infraction. 3-0 Eagles.
The Gulls again came with a push to close out the period but were again met with the Eagles stringent defense. Down by three with one period to go and looking likely to be closed out by the disciplined and dull Eagles. Shots were 23-18 for the Eagles.
Third Period: Colorado Eagles 3 – San Diego Gulls 0
With low to lower than low expectations I barely felt anything when the Eagles scored during a four on four sequence that occurred because Bryce Kindropp was clearly interfered with when attempting to chase down a dump in but was given a matching minor for “embellishment”.
Hunter Drew was then given a ten minute misconduct for telling the Officials what we all thought of their performance thus far.
San Diego broke the Annunen shut-out via an Alex Limoges deflection created by a bad Eagles change that lead to an outnumbered attack down low. 4-1 Eagles with just under eight minutes left.
Not much happened in the remainder of the game other than the Officials missing some blatant slashing calls on Vinni Lettieri as he made his way via the Eagles on his way to the net.
4-1 Eagles win and another two hours of my life I will never get back.
Post Game Notes:
De Ja Vu
Colorado has always been a team that the Gulls have struggled to beat at five on five. Ever since I can remember they have deployed a rugged, heavy hitting game and lock up the neutral zone once they have the lead. It is why I HATE watching the Gulls play them. Once they get the lead there is essentially no way to make a come-back. It is an effective strategy to win. It is also frustrating to watch as a fan of the other team. Ofcourse the Gulls could have given them more of a taste of their own medicine in response and played the perfect man to man game that got them the win Wednesday night. Thankfully San Diego does not see them again this season and we shouldn’t be bored to tears again until next year.
Injuries? Or Roster shake up?
I can understand scratching Jack Badini after the previous loss. He made some very obvious mistakes while not contributing much offensively and hasn’t looked as good as he did at the start of the season lately. But Lucas Elvenes? I really hope that was not a “coaches message” type scratch. Sure he wasn’t on the scoresheet in the previous two games but that doesn’t seem reason enough to me.
The Worst
Seriously – I hate the Eagles so much. I spent the majority of the third period on my phone with the game on the background because – due to the style they play – I could be assured that absolutely nothing would happen. It didn’t help that the Officials allowed them to do as they pleased, ignoring blatant hooks, holds and two very bad slashes that even Andy voiced frustrations over. I don’t care that I sound like a whiny homer fan right now, it is boring as shit hockey and I hate to watch it – it makes me hate watching hockey. That’s how bad it is.
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