2024-2025 Game 25: San Diego Gulls at Tucson Roadrunners

Tucson, Arizona. After seeing their point streak ended at the hands of a 2-0 shut-out the San Diego Gulls looked to get their mojo back in the second of their two mid-week games in the desert.

Carson Meyer still remained out with injury after coming back from a previous ailment and then suffering a hard hit at the Barracuda bench against San Jose. Dillon Heatherington returned from a lower body injury but Tristan Luneau was held out due to an illness. Jaxsen Wiebe drew back in – with Nico Myatovic coming out to make room. Jan Mysak was promoted to center the second line and Josh Lopina dropped to pivot the fourth set of wingers.

Once again Rodwin Dionicio was a healthy scratch – making it looking less and less likely that we ever see him again this season.

Tristain Luneau joined the injury list; which now consisted of himself, Carson Meyer and Travis Howe. Rodwin Dionicio sat out his ninth straight game as a healthy scratch along with Nico Myatovic.

Calle Clang got the start with Oscar Dansk backing up.

First Period:

San Diego started well – looking less stagnant than they did in the previous encounter but still somewhat “held back” by the Roadrunners stifling defense.

A Tucson shift in momentum saw them score right away as a one-timer from the point beat Clang through traffic. 1-0 Roadrunners.

Things went from bad to worse as Gulls Captain Ryan Carpenter fumbled a break out pass off the wall to Nikita Nesterenko and then watched as it was intercepted and sent to the Gulls net where it was deflected on the way by former Gull Andrew Agozzino. 2-0 Roadrunners.

San Diego did try to push back and looked a lot better in their attempts at attack than they did in the last game but you got the sense it would not be enough with how well the Roadrunners collapsed in front of their net.

The Gulls taking a two goal deficit to the first intermission looking just as lost as they did earlier in the week. Shots were 14-12 for the Gulls with the shot map showing that San Diego did indeed to a much better job on offense but one man stood in the way.

Second Period: Tucson Roadrunners 2 – San Diego Gulls 0

San Diego took to the Roadrunners like they had been shot out of a cannon and their concerted back to back shifts in the offensive zone to start the second period gave them instant life as Sasha Pastujov was able to get to and finish a rebound in front of Villalta. 2-1 Roadrunners.

The Gulls continued to push after the goal for an equalizer but Tucson took back control and held the San Diego zone for consecutive shifts for the next few minutes of play. During one sequence a clear-cut interference call was missed and another less obvious one also went begging as the Roadrunners set various picks in the Gulls zone with their cycling.

San Diego did respond and see some time in the Tucson also – one particular shift by the top line saw multiple high danger chances generated but was immediately undone by some terrible back-checking as a Tucson counter-attack ended up in the back of their net as both Captain Ryan Carpenter and Pavol Regenda coasted behind the play. 3-1 Roadrunners.

Tucson continued to push and instantly got another – their tireless cycling wearing San Diego down and allowing another chance that was sent by Clang. 4-1 Roadrunners.

The Gulls managed to spend the rest of the period in the Tucson zone and drew an interference call (somehow the Officials were paying attention) but could not solve Vilallta again and headed to the second intermission down 4-1 – shots were again 14-12 for the Gulls and 28-24 overall. The shot map showing the Gulls doing an amicable job of creating chances in front but letting mistakes cost them in their own end.

Third Period: Tucson Roadrunners 4 – San Diego Gulls 1

Oscar Dansk replaced Calle Clang during the second intermission and was in net to start the final frame.

The third period began with the same levels of frustration to watch as the first two periods – albeit slightly different in that the increasingly chippy play saw both teams exchange Power Plays through the first five minutes. Neither could convert and the Gulls looked particularly terrible with their opportunity – clearly missing Tristan Luneau as the main puck carrier.

The rest of the period crept by and I found myself questioning a lot of my life choices as I prayed for an end to the most boring hockey I had witnessed all season.

A Roadrunners empty net tally briefly woke me up from a short nap I must have taken and the Gulls ended up going down 5-1.

Post Game Notes:

Changes Needed

As I said after the last post-game notes – if there was ever a time to make a change to the line-up it is now; the point streak ended, now a two game losing streak, time to give someone else a chance? Will that happen? Nope.

Tristan Luneau out with illness and down a puck-rushing defender? Lucky we have one of those spare and very well rested after eight games as a heal… oh no, I guess not.

If you cannot tell I am more than a little frustrated with the line-up decisions and lack of transparency surrounding the Dionicio situation. From the moment Tucson scored their second goal you just knew this one was done-for. San Diego have not been able to create against this team whatsoever, I don’t know how to solve the Tucson snooze-fest style either but maybe switching things up could help? It will only be worse against a Colorado team who deploys the exact same defense-first boring style of hockey so I guess get ready for another two in the loss column. San Diego coaching staff – year on year have never been able to solve those defense-first teams and you can pretty much chalk up any game against those types of opponents as an instant L.

I Miss Chase

I’m saying it. I called out the leadership in the last post game notes and the game today only further proved things. Ryan Carpenter is not a great Captain. He was directly responsible for the second goal against and then coasted on the back-check to see the third goal go in as well. Some great leadership shown there. Is that the kind of guy players should be looking up to? Coasting on the back-check?

Dropping Again

The back to back losses makes the climb back to .500 that much harder as the Gulls now fall to 8-14-1-2 on the season through 25 games. They are still just one point back from Bakersfield but have played three more games. They also now sit seven points behind Ontario for the final playoff spot while the Roadrunners move yet further ahead into the middle pack of the division – somewhere I had hoped the Gulls would be after this week-day two game stint. The Gulls now head to Colorado to take on a team that as I mentioned – play a very similar heavy, defense-first, suck the absolute joy out of the game kind of style.