2022-2023 Game 56: San Diego Gulls at Tucson Roadrunners

After dropping a high scoring affair at home to Henderson the San Diego Gulls hit the road east into the desert after a tumultuous NHL trade deadline that saw them lose their leading goal scorer Rocco Grimaldi.

With the departure of Grimaldi, newcomer Josiah Slavin was instantly elevated into the top line center spot while the recently acquired for Grimaldi – Dylan Sikura – slotted in on the second line alongside Gawdin and Tracey. With Axel Andersson returning from injury – Nik Brouillard was temporarily placed up front on the fourth line. Gage Alexander was given the start.

On the other side it was noted the Roadrunners were down a defender and a forward due to the deadline subtracting bodies from their roster while new players had not yet arrived. Similarly the Gulls did not have Chase Priskie in the line-up due to not arriving in time.

First Period:

From drop of the puck it seemed obvious the San Diego Gulls were well aware of the Roadrunners shorthanded situation and chose to up the tempo presumably in an attempt to tire them out long term.

Play was night and day different from the kind of tight defensive and conservative style we have seen from the Gulls lately as back and forth action dominated the first ten or so minutes of stoppage time.

As the Roadrunners began to press they opened the scoring via a face-off win and some slight interference that meant Michael Carccone was able to collect the puck and circle into the slot with space, wiring a shot that beat Alexander blocker side. 1-0 Roadrunners.

The Gulls tried to respond but were struggling to string together a high danger chance on net as they once again did not seem to know where each-other would be.

A strong shift by the second line followed by the top line almost tied things up with less than a minute left as San Diego added an extra six shots in the final few minutes of play. The Gulls taking a 1-0 deficit into the first intermission but an 11-9 shot lead, the shot map showing encouraging signs for the kind of chances they were generating.

Second Period: Tucson Roadrunners 1 – San Diego Gulls 0

Starting the second much the same way they started the first the Gulls rolled through all four lines while spending most of the first few minutes in the Tucson zone.

Some great work by the fourth line – lead by some inspired forechecking by Brouillard to force a turnover lead to a lengthy sequence of sustained pressure that saw the Gulls roll through three lines while holding the puck in the Tucson zone and setting up cross-ice one-time as well as mid-slot opportunities that continually frustratingly sailed wide until Josh Lopina was finally able to connect on one in the slot and beat Roadrunners goaltender Ivan Prosvetov. 1-1 tie game.

The Roadrunners attempted an immediate response but the Gulls were wise to it and countered with their top line, grinding the puck out of their zone and back up ice to set up in the Tucson zone. There Case De Leo received a pass from Pavol Regenda on the near side boards, made a move to slip into a shooting lane and wired a shot that beat Prosvetov top corner. 2-1 Gulls lead.

Tucson settled things down and despite the Gulls generating some good chances with their top line once again, a counter rush from the Roadrunners ended in a tie-game as the San Diego defense flailed around in a hugely disorganized fashion. 2-2 tie game.

The Roadrunners kept the Gull on their heels for much of the remainder of the period – making it seem like that they were the team playing two men short until San Diego were finally able to reverse momentum and start to generate some chances at the other end for the final few minutes of the period.

As the period expired it seemed the Gulls would have some work to do if they hoped to take advantage of the weakened Roadrunners. Shots were 25-20 for the Gulls as both teams headed to the second intermission knotted up at two.

Third Period: San Diego Gulls 2 – Tucson Roadrunners 2

Starting out with an inspired fore-check the Gulls were able to generate chances across their top two lines before needing to shelter under the heavy hitting and cycle game that the Roadrunners deployed in response.

The hitting up significantly and the referees elected to “let them play” as the bodies flew and retaliatory shoves and slashes were ignored while the action continued back and forth.

All of a sudden there was only a few minutes left in regulation and it felt as though we may be heading to overtime to break the deadlock as neither team were able to score within the final period.

Overtime:

Starting the overtime session with a top line trio of Josiah Slavin, Chase De Leo and Michael Del Zotto it took San Diego all of just fifteen seconds to net the game winner as a Slavin face-off win back to Del Zotto meant San Diego began with possession. The veteran defender then sent a lead pass to Chase De Leo in the neutral zone who quickly sent it across to Slavin coming into the Tucson zone. The former Rockford Icehog tucking the puck in and using a Roadrunner as a partial screen to send a hard low wrist shot past Prosvetov for the game winner. Gulls win 3-2.

Post Game Notes:

Injury updates

Andy Zilch mentioned during the broadcast that BO Groulx made the trip so it sounds like he is close to returning which is great news. He also mentioned that there was no further news on Cotton, Healey, Hora, Perreault or Kirkland. The pre-game scratches also noted Travis Howe is now injured also.

Anthony Stolarz was also announced as being out for the rest of the season – meaning Lukas Dostal will stay with the Ducks and the Gulls will see out the rest of the year with the current Alexander-Erikkson-Ek combo.

Departures and arrivals

The Ducks lost two defenders at the deadline but have been rolling without them for the past few games anyway so I am not entirely sure we are going to see any Gulls call-ups as a result. It sounds as though Andre Sustr is intended to join the Ducks but is currently injured so will see some time with the Gulls first once he recovers – this explains his automatic assignment to San Diego after the trade. Notably the Ducks did not deal any forwards and received one in return in Brock McGinn, does this mean they try to assign one to the Gulls? The only player that is waiver exempt is Mason McTavish and I don’t see them assigning him so its likely Max Comtois, Jayson Megna, Brett Leason and Sam Carrick continue to rotate in and out of the press box. This also leads me to believe there won’t be Gulls call-ups to give “guys a look” as most Ducks fans were assuming might happen after the deadline – unless there are injuries or the Gulls receive some depth to cover for the call-ups in the terms of black-aces and players returning from injury.

The Gulls will receive Chase Priskie on defense as well as Sustr for a brief amount of time. Austin Strand – going the other way in the Priskie deal – did not appear to be happy with his situation in San Diego. Which I guess is understandable given he saw time with the Ducks earlier in the season and looked good doing it.

They also have the incoming Nikita Nesterenko to look forward to – the Brooklyn, NY born 2019 sixth round pick of the Minnesota Wild has 31 points in 34 games for Boston College, second on the team in scoring and 61st in NCAA scoring overall. Pat Verbeek has been quoted on the most recent “The Beeker” episode as stating the Ducks/Gulls will sign Nesterenko to a ATO at the end of his college season and then offer him a three year ELC in the summer. The BC Eagles closed our their regular season this week and begin their playoffs as the number eight seed in the Hockey East Tournament hosting number nine seed UMass. We could be seeing Nesterenko in the few weeks.

Jackson LaCombe is also due to sign once his College season is up – it is speculated he will sign an ELC and see games with the Ducks to accelerate his pro-career debut; much like the Ducks have done with Troy Terry and Trevor Zegras.

Jaxsen Wiebe – signed to an ELC by the Ducks this week is also likely to join the Gulls once his Junior season is up. The twenty year old native of Moose Jaw Saskatchewan is a 6’1″ right shooting winger/center that plays with “an edge”. He had 36 points 51 games for the Edmonton Oil Kings last year and another 8 points in 13 playoff games. This season he has a combined 32 points in 35 games between the Oil Kings and the Prince George Cougars. He essentially sounds like another Logan Nijhoff with potentially more scoring touch – which explains why Nijhoff was included in the Grimaldi package.

It is sad to see Golod also but he was coming to the end of his three year entry deal and it seemed as though the Ducks did not wish to qualify him.

Welcoming an old foe

Coming the other way in the Grimaldi deal is Dylan Sikura and we got our first look at him as a Gull in this game. He seemed hesitant at first and a little our of sorts which is totally normal given it’s a brand new team and new systems but he also showed much better than expected chemistry with his line-mates and particularly Glen Gawdin. I liked his speed – not as fast as Grimnaldi ofcourse – and his ability to spot and feed a puck to a team-mate through the smallest of gaps. Zilch commented that he liked the deal and reiterated a few times that the Gulls got a younger (27 year old) player for an older (30 year old) one who despite being on an expiring UFA deal – could be kept around to help develop the incoming prospects. He also mentioned “a player that wants to be here” meaning that it does sound like Grimaldi requested a trade – as I am guessing Strand did also. Here is hoping Sikura is able to be re-signed but if he does not – all the Gulls lost in the deal were some expiring contracts. It does hurt to lose Grimaldi, but given he is a SoCal native, hopefully he comes back next year if he is unable to secure an NHL deal – something he is hoping to get through this trade and playoff drive most likely.