2024-2025 Game 28: San Diego Gulls vs Ontario Reign

San Diego, California. Finally home after dropping four straight on the road the San Diego Gulls hoped to close out the year with some wins at home as they first welcomed in the Ontario Reign a team whose record thus far this season was almost a complete opposite to theirs.

The injuries and subsequent line-up changes suffered on the road carried over the Christmas Break and meant that Rodwin Dionicio saw his second straight game after being scratched for eight. The forward lines remained potent – with Sasha Pastujov and Yegor Sidorov elevated to the top two lines.

Tristain Luneau joined the injury list; which now consisted of himself, Carson Meyer, Noah Warren and Travis Howe. Jaxsen Wiebe was the only healthy scratch.

Oscar Dansk got the start with Calle Clang backing him up.

First Period:

San Diego started well – they generated the first chance, a push on the Ontario net via Jan Mysak and Sasha Pastujov but Ontario countered and immediately struck back the other way. Scoring just 21 seconds into the game on their first touch of the puck as Francesco Pinelli beat Dansk. 1-0 Reign.

A Power Play opportunity awarded when Arthur Kaliyev sent the puck over the glass gave way to two tantalizing opportunities – both for Josh Lopina but both went begging as his redirect chance setup by Yegor Sidorov went well wide. Then his chance in close moments later was harmlessly shoved into the goaltenders pads.

A huge (but potentially late) hit by Joe Hicketts on Nikita Nesterenko added some early bite to the game and was instantly followed by Judd Caulfield dropping the gloves with Hicketts. Caulfield was given the instigator for his efforts but on the resulting Ontario Power Play the Gulls enjoyed the better of the chances during the two minute sequence as back to back odd man rush breaks had the crowd tearing their hair out with the puck doing everything but cross the goal line behind Reign netminder Erik Portillo.

As the bitter rivals continued to exchange penalties one sequence highlighted the potential issues with Rodwin Dionicios foot-speed as he was beat by a Reign counter-rush on a shorthanded chance and forced Josh Lopina to take a slashing call to impede an Ontario chance.

San Diego killed the minor but a further penalty to Sasha Pastujov for boarding put them right back on the penalty kill. Ryan Carpenter broke his stick on the defensive zone face-off but as he watched team-mates eat some time by holding the puck up against the boards he made a sprint to the bench to get a new one and as he did the Gulls got possession. A heads-up play from Pavol Regenda saw Carpenter sprung on a clean break and he beat Portillo to tie the game. 1-1.

But the Reign struck right back – exposing the Gulls poor man to man defense as Ontario again found their danger-man Francesco Pinelli in the slot who made San Diego pay as his hard and swift wrist shot beat Dansk clean. 2-1 Ontario.

San Diego down 2-1 after the first period of play in what was a much closer contest than the score dictated. Shots were 9-8 Ontario and the shot map proving the Gulls creating the better in-close chances but the Gulls being victimized by a sniper able to get to his favored areas.

Second Period: Ontario Reign 2 – San Diego Gulls 1

San Diego started the second with some jump but contrary to previous efforts at offense they looked convincing as they immediately equalized through an offensive zone face-off. Captain Ryan Carpenter winning it back to Rolan McKeown who fed Yegor Sidorov in the very high slot. The sharp shooting forward sending a low shot through traffic that beat Portillo to make it a 2-2 tie game.

The burgeoning San Diego momentum was quickly squashed by a Nikita Nesterenko roughing minor drawn as the retaliation call after he was man-handled by Joe Hicketts. The Gulls almost made it 3-2 shorthanded on Nathan Gauchers second one on one move with the Reign net-minder that saw him hit iron and then the Reign finished the other way as Nico Myatovic was caught getting a tad too aggressive on the Gulls kill and left an opening that could not be covered. Arthur Kaliyev left open for a one-time shot that beat Dansk top corner. 3-2 Reign.

Much like the first period – the teams exchanged penalties and special teams opportunities but the score remained the same for the next few minutes despite the high event chances that resulted with the extra ice.

As time approached the midway point and the penalties continued to be exchanged the Gulls found another equalizer as the top Power Play unit won an offensive zone face-off via Captain Ryan Carpenter then cycled the puck back down low to the veteran center. The swiftness of the puck movement allowing him time and space to move right to the net, get a shot away and collect his own rebound for his second goal of the night. 3-3 tie game.

The intensity picked up as did the physicality, Judd Caulfield laying consecutive huge hits on one shift to get the Pechanga faithful energized as time started to fly by on the period.

It was at this point I noticed Oscar Dansk had been replaced by Calle Clang – there was no mention of it on the broadcast right away then concern shifted to potential injury as he was noted to not be seen on the bench.

San Diego were awarded one more Power Play to close out the middle frame as Jan Mysak was the victim of a DTD take-down by simply standing in front of the Reign net after the whistle. With forty seconds left in the period to work with the Gulls only really created the one chance after a perfect set-up by Sasha Pastujov to spring Sam Colangelo on a partial break but his side to side move was stopped. Time expired and the Gulls took a 3-3 tie to the second intermission after being rewarded for some clinical scoring plays. Shots were 15-10 San Diego and the shot map showed an accurate picture of the kind of possession and chances the Gulls enjoyed on the period.

Third Period: San Diego Gulls 3 – Ontario Reign 3

The physical high tempo play from the middle period carried over to the third and the exchanging of penalties continued with the Gulls having the edge in overall possession with scoring chances created as a result.

Judd Caulfield continued his strong game by setting up Nikita Nesterenko for a chance on the Reign net but the speedy forward was stopped as he drew a hooking call on his way to the Ontario net.

The second Power Play unit started things off with a very short stint in the Reign zone but could not keep the puck in deep and as Ontario started to move it the other way Rodwin Dionicio made them pay the price – leveling Francesco Pinelli with a monstrous open ice hit. The first unit swiftly replaced the second and saw more chances but could not get anything to stick and we returned to five on five.

A fourth delay of game penalty to the Reign and second of the night in particular to Arthur Kaliyev gave San Diego yet another man advantage opportunity but despite getting some good looks – they again could not finish as time progressed closer to the final few minutes of regulation.

The physical play put an exclamation point on the final minute of regulation as bodies flew and passes became tighter but sixty minutes was not enough and we headed to overtime.

Overtime:

San Diego held possession for the majority of the three on three session but their patience did not translate to results and a shoot out was required.

Shootout:

Nikita Nesterenko went first and was stopped.

Arthur Kaliyev went next for the Reign but was matched move for move by Clang and eventually ran out of room.

Sam Colangelo went second and his left to right move was stopped but the rebound flung up in the air and Portillo had to be alert to make sure it did not trickle behind him.

Taylor Ward went next for Ontario and Clang again stuck with him to make the glove stop.

Sasha Pastujov took the Gulls third shot but his quick inside outside move was stopped.

Sam Fagemo had the final shot and chance to win it but Clang stayed with him again and his out stretched left hand denied the chance to send it to sudden death shots.

Yegor Sidorov was the first of the sudden death shooters and looked the most likely as his speed up slow down then patient stick handle in front of Portillo finally got him to bite, the star shooter appearing to almost dive in slow motion to ensure he tucked the puck behind the downed goaltender.

Ontario had to score with their next shooter – Tyler Madden but Calle Clang was locked in, again staying with the Reign forward to deny his slow right to left move.

A San Diego Gulls win and a much deserved victory over their crosstown rivals.

Post Game Notes:

Captain Comes Through

After calling him out in a previous post game notes Captain Ryan Carpenter definitely showed up tonight. That was exactly the kind of dominant display I expected of the veteran center and his goals were both critical and timely. Providing that kind of performance on a game by game basis is again – hopefully the next step as the the Gulls look to build some more momentum during this home-stand.

Re-Evaluating Rodwin

This was my first look at Dionicio since his eight game scratch stretch and I wanted to look more closely at his skating. I had defended on twitter that I believed his skating was not an issue – his edges mean he is so shifty at getting away from would be fore-checkers both on the breakout and in the offensive zone but I did note – as above in the recap – that he got beat on the Power Play purely by a lack of foot speed. I stand corrected and this is likely the reason he is low on the depth chart regarding being used in the line-up, his offensive skill-set is not enough to make up for this weakness on the back-end but I do believe it can be easily improved with more work. Once Warren or Luneau return he is probably relegated back to the bench.

On the positive side – he made some great first passes on the breakout and had some good ideas in the offensive zone. He was all compete as compared to that glaringly bad shift that led to his initial benching and scratching back in November.

Best of all – his token massive hit per game was a beauty, leveling Franseco Pinelli at open ice to bring a roar from the crowd.

Possible Buteyets Sighting Coming?

We may not know if Dansk is injured or not but I guess we will find out if Vyacheslav Buteyets receives a call up from Tulsa. The Ducks sixth round selection in 2022 has an 8-6-1 record, a 3.02 GAA and a .895 SV% through 15 games with the Oilers thus far. He appears to have lost the net in Tulsa to New York Rangers prospect Talyn Boyko so if we do see him recalled this could be a positive influence to eventually send him back to Tulsa with some more confidence. Speaking of Tulsa – the “other guy” in the Fowler trade has arrived and so far has three points in four games including the overtime winner for the Oilers most recent action.