Taking a short trip inland to their nearby rivals in Ontario, the San Diego Gulls looked to rebound from a disappointing loss at home that featured several highlight saves from Lukas Dostal.
The first line remained intact while once again Jacob Perreault and Brayden Tracey were split up (WHY???). Dmitry Osipov and Logan Nijhoff came back into the line up while Brent Gates was scratched. Pavol Regenda remained in Anaheim, along with Glen Gawdin.
Defensive pairings remained the same – with Austin Strand still on call-up with the Ducks.
Lukas Dostal was given his third straight start.
First Period:
It was looking good from the jump for the Gulls as BO Groulx fed a nice pass to Justin Kirkland to send him in alone on the Reign netminder Phoenix Copley but his shot sailed wide.
San Diego kept up the attack and generated another high danger chance before the Reign countered with their own top line, to cause the Gulls some trouble in their zone.
The back and forth continued for another few minutes before some nice passing by the Tracey, O’Regan and Lopina line ended in a Brayden Tracey goal off a beautiful feed down low from Danny O’Regan. Upon review it was deemed no goal – due to goaltender interference by Josh Lopina, which was hard to spot on the replay but possibly happened before the play.
The set back didn’t seem to phase the Gulls as they harassed and frustrated the Reign all over the ice, leading in shots 5-0 by the midway point of the period and drawing a high-sticking call for their first man -advantage of the game. The man advantage quickly turned to a two man advantage as young Reign defender Jordan Spence cross-checked Nik Brouillard just fifteen seconds in.
Despite some nice puck movement and quick one-touch passing, the Gulls could not entice the Reign triangle to shift to get an open lane and Ontario escaped the extended two man disadvantage unscathed.
Play did not return to five on five until the final 15 seconds of the period as both teams exchanged a steady stream of penalties through physical and sometimes chippy play reminiscent of a typical Gulls and Reign match-up.
The Reign swiftly surpassing the Gulls early shot lead to take a 9-5 shot edge to the first intermission after a scoreless opening frame.
Second Period:
It took all of twenty seconds for the Gulls to get on the board as the top line faced off against the Reign top line and won a puck battle in the Reign zone courtesy of BO Groulx and Justin Kirkland. Kirkland layed a heavy hit down low to free up the puck to the Ducks 2018 second round pick who then passed it behind him to Rocco Grimaldi in scoring position. 1-0 Gulls.
The Reign tried to mount an immediate response but Lukas Dostal stood tall and then the pleasantries and subsequent penalties started to pile up once more, starting with some wrestling between Hunter Drew and former Duck veteran Nate Thompson. As the dust settled Luka Profaca was given the extra minor for cross-checking while the aforementioned Thompson received a ten minute misconduct.
As play resumed with the Gulls on the penalty kill but doing a great job at preventing the Reign from entering the zone and getting set up, Justin Kirkland was tripped trying to reach a loose puck and we went to four on four play for twenty seconds.
Sixteen seconds was all Jacob Perreault needed to use the extra space afforded him at four on four to execute his patented spin-o-rama move to lose his checked, break down the left side and find a seam. His initial shot but his follow up ended up in the back of the Reign net for a highlight reel goal. 2-0 Gulls.
Just fifteen seconds later as Luca Profaca was released from the penalty box, a fortunate turnover allowed Nik Brouillard to head-man a pass to him up ice for the clear cut breakaway. The rookie defender making a nice move to beat Copley for his first AHL goal. 3-0 Gulls.
With the Reign suitable stunned and the arena deadly quiet the Reign called a time-out in an attempt to slow the Gulls surging momentum.
San Diego started to spend entirely too much time in the penalty box as Ontario slowly but surely took back momentum.
The lack of love lost between the two teams continued as another scuffle in front of the Gulls net ended in a mini pile up as both Kirkland and Helleson took exception to the Brandt Clarke hitting Dostals blocker after the play had ended.
The physicality and exchange of Power Plays continued for the rest of the frame but the as time expired the Gulls took a commanding 3-0 lead to the second intermission while falling slightly behind in shots 20-17.
Third Period: San Diego Gulls 3 – Ontario Reign 0
San Diego spent the majority of the third period playing a perfect shutdown game on the road.
Contesting pucks in the neutral zone, frustrating and keep tight on their man in the defensive end and maintaining possession as long as they could in the Ontario zone.
A momentary defensive lapse did allow the Reign to get on the board as a cross-ice one-timer forced a reactionary save from Dostal that kicked out a rebound right to the slot and Aidan Dudas buried it in front. 3-1 Gulls with just under six minutes left.
Josh Healey disliked something on the play – possibly something Taylor Ward said to him as he went immediately to slash him while the Reign celebrated the goal – or on the replay it looked like . The penalty putting the Gulls on the back foot with the hosts pressing after the goal. Some great stick work and defensive positioning from the penalty killing units ensured the Reign did capitalize on the ill-advised minor – Olli Juolevi in particular was brilliant in his efforts.
The Reign pulled Copley with two minutes remaining and after two attempts the Gulls finally iced it via an empty net goal from Nik Brouillard. 4-1 Gulls.
San Diego responding to their loss at home with a win over their rivals on the road.
Post Game Notes:
Thats how you beat the Reign
Patrick Williams had a good quote about the Gulls this week in a brief twitter conversation with me.
He is dead right. This Gulls squad is like Jekyll and Hyde. They follow up a 7-0 rout of the Henderson Silver Knights with a sleepwalk at home against the Condors. Then they turn around and physically dominate the near top of the division nearby rivals. The Reign are now on a three game losing streak and will lose Byfield to the Kings as his conditioning stint ends but the Gulls showed in this game how to beat them. There were concerns whenever Ontario were allowed to cycle and find open space without a Gull player able to get in tight on them but overall San Diego played a good hard checking game that both frustrated and nullified the Reign’s speed game.
Whats next
Normally one could hope that the Gulls might put together a nice little run here given how their play overall has been trending upward lately but then the news was announced today that Drew Helleson was called up to the Ducks. Whether that was a precaution in-case John Klingberg was unable to go – or for something more long term remains to be seen. He more than deserves the call-up and I wish him well but here is hoping for the Gulls that it is just a brief “in case of sick Klingberg break glass” type of call-up and we see him back sooner rather than later. His minutes and strong defensive game all over the ice will leave a huge hole in the San Diego line-up.
Profaca
Profaca has been quietly impressing in the early goings of the season thus far. His game has been exactly as advertised from twitter reports I read about him. Physical, good gap control, aggressive and uncompromising with a side of some bad penalties thrown every now and then. Then he scores his first AHL goal on a breakaway, executing a nice forehand to backhand move and I start to wonder – could he be the next Simon Benoit? Sean O’Brien of the Calder Farmstead released his modelling data on the season thus far and Luka Profaca isn’t too far behind Helleson in defensive metrics.
Watch this space.
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