2022-2023 Game 20: San Diego Gulls vs Calgary Wranglers

Hey all – Jason “JD” Hernandez wrote this up for me because I am too busy moving house to cover San Diego Gulls games at the moment. He did an awesome job, please give him a follow on Twitter if you haven’t already, he is an all round awesome dude. Also if you fancy helping out and covering a Gulls game or even interviewing some players, let me know!

Author – Jason “JD” Hernandez:

With a 5-game losing streak looming in the background, the San Diego Gulls went into Saturday night’s game looking for some redemption against the Calgary Wranglers who are near the top of the Pacific Division standings. Calgary was victorious at Pechanga Arena Friday night with a 7-3 thrashing of the
Gulls.

There was an interesting shuffling of the lines before Saturday’s game as Dmitry Osipov moves up to the first line with Rocco Grimaldi and Bo Groulx. Also, the “TP Line” is joined by Bryce Kindopp. The defense remained the same from Friday, but it’s great to see Drew Helleson back from an illness. Lukas Dostal is
back in net for the Gulls.

First Period:

The Calgary Wranglers came out blazing with Nick DeSimone immediately taking control of the puck and getting things started with the first shot of the game. Not long after Calgary coughed up possession one minute in, Austin Strand sailed the puck over the glass for the game’s first penalty… a bad mistake to
start the game. Calgary boasts the Western Conference’s best power play percentage at 29.2% (second only to the Cleveland Monsters at nearly 32%), and it would be up to Lukas Dostal to keep the Gulls in it early on. Fortunately, a couple active sticks kept Calgary in the perimeter and they didn’t register a shot on goal on that first power play. While the Wranglers were mostly out of the high danger zone, they didn’t allow the Gulls to gain possession much in the first 5 minutes of the game. Evan Weinger got the Gulls’ first shot of the game, then drew a cross-checking penalty on Walker Duehr to give the Gulls a power play chance. The power play was less-than-stellar on this game, including a semi-breakaway for the Flames’ AHL affiliate.
This would continue through the first period where the usually-reliable Lukas Dostal stopped every shot that came his way. However, Dostal had himself a bit of an adventure outside the crease after a miscommunication turnover between Danny O’Regan and former Stockton Heat player, Justin Kirkland. It was off to the races between Calgary captain, Brett Sutter, and Jarod Hilderman… who crashed into
Dostal several feet outside the crease. This should have been a sure Calgary goal with 5:30 left in the first. However…

Walker Duehr whiffed on a wide open net, and Dostal was able to poke the puck aside and later gather himself. The game would remain scoreless until Brett Sutter drilled Matthew Phillips with a hard shot, only for the puck to wind up on Colton Poolman’s stick for the easy put-away goal. Matthew Phillips gets a painful assist out of it, and the Wranglers take a 1-0 lead into the break. The Gulls were already down 19-5 shots at this point.

Second Period: Calgary Wranglers 1 – San Diego Gulls 0

San Diego began the period playing aggressively on the forecheck, and the result is a power play for the Gulls. The ensuing power play started with a turnover and the Wranglers getting an early chance. However, going the other way, Jacob Perreault came barreling towards the net… literally.

He crashed into Dustin Wolf, but the puck never crossed the line, so we remain at a one-goal game. For what its worth, the Gulls showed some massive energy on the power play peppering Dustin Wolf with some quality shots including a Drew Helleson rebound attempt. Not long after the power play lapsed, however, Radim Zohorna scores on the backdoor pass from Connor Zary to make it a 2-0 game for the visitors.
After that, it was all Calgary. Nikolas Brouillard got caught cross-checking, and Nick DeSimone cashed in on the power play to make it a 3-0 game.
Less than two minutes later, the AHL’s leading scorer broke free against Drew Helleson and Jarod Hilderman and had a filthy finish on a backhand flip just over the shoulder of Lukas Dostal. That made it 4-0.
At this point of the game, the player that stood out the most for the Gulls was Evan Weinger. Although he only had one shot on goal, Weinger proved to be strong on the forecheck for the first 40 minutes, and was driving play for the Gulls whenever they had control of the puck.

Third Period: Calgary Wranglers 4 – San Diego Gulls 0

Not much to write home about on this period. Jarod Hilderman got a harmless shot from the point through to Dustin Wolf in the first 11 seconds of the period. That would be the last shot for the San Diego Gulls for the rest of the game.
Not even Rocco Grimaldi drawing two consecutive penalties could help out the Gulls on the two-man advantage as they couldn’t get anything going. The movement was simply not happening on the power play, and a few cross-ice passes were getting interecepted by Calgary keeping the puck outside the high-danger area.
Clark Bishop scored two late goals, including a power play marker to give the Wranglers a dominating 6-0 win, and another game in the L column for the last-place Gulls.

Post Game Notes:

The Bakery Getting Visited Frequently
Lukas Dostal saw 40-plus shots for the second game in a row and has seen the most shots BY FAR in the entire AHL. Lukas Dostal has seen 574 shots against him, the next highest is Joel Hofer of the Springfield Thunderbirds with only 474 shots against. The Gulls defense has looked similar to their NHL parent club, who leads the league in most shots against.

Pain In Anaheim (and San Diego)
With Isac Lundestrom being injured for 6 weeks because of a broken finger, and now with Derek Grant out of the Ducks’ lineup this week, Anaheim will surely be looking to the Gulls to bring up another forward, especially after the Ducks went with an 11F/7D lineup at Winnipeg Sunday afternoon. This would further deplete the already injury-ridden Gulls who are currently without the services of Josh Lopina, Brent Gates, Chase De Leo, Glenn Gawdin, Axel Andersson, Josh Healey, and now Max Golod.

The Gulls look to right the ship at the Saddledome next weekend for a pair of games against these same
Calgary Wranglers.

Thanks again to Jason “JD” Hernandez for writing this up for me!