2024-2025 Game 9: San Diego Gulls vs Abbotsford Canucks

San Diego, California. Despite coming close to beating the division leading Wranglers on their first of their two games in Calgary, the San Diego Gulls dropped the second decision with a whimper in a 6-2 loss. Heading home to begin the month November having started the season 2-6-0 the Gulls hoped to get back in the win column facing the same team they had pipped 4-1 in their most recent meeting north of the border.

It was announced earlier in the week that star Ducks prospect Tristan Luneau had been assigned to San Diego which lead to yet more line-shuffling on the part of Matt McIlvane. Yegor Sidorov was moved back to the third line – which was reshaped – seeing Judd Caulfield as a healthy scratch for the first time and the returned from injury Nico Myatovic taking his spot. Jan Mysak, Josh Lopina and Coulson Pitre made up the fourth line.

Defensive pairings were reshuffled once again – with Heatherington and Helleson on the top pair, while Noah Warren was placed with Tristan Luneau and Tyson Hinds was joined by Roland McKeown on the last pairing.

Calle Clang – the current incumbent number one was given the start with Dansk backing up.

Travis Howe, Judd Caulfield, Rodwin Dionicio and Roman Kinal were the healthy scratches.

First Period:

Much like their last encounter with these same Canucks the Gulls started out strong, deploying a relentless fore-check and measuring up to their physical game.

They earned a Power Play from their good work but could not convert – with both units generating some average to OK looks. However once the minor expired the Canucks pushed the envelope and forced San Diego into some bad turnovers in the neutral zone – the second of which burned them as a they opened the scoring on a two on one break. 1-0 Canucks.

Abbotsford kept up the attack and drew a call of their own as Dillon Heatherington was called for interference. San Diego was able to erase the minor but Heatherington was sent right back to the box as he was caught high sticking in the neutral zone.

Again – the Gulls survived being down a man for the two minute infraction but struggled to get momentum back from the surging Canucks when play returned to five on five.

The hitting picked up in the final few minutes and saw the Gulls close out the period on the Power Play after a nasty hit from behind on Drew Helleson by the Canucks Ty Mueller. Yegor Sidorov had the Gulls one and only shot on the man advantage but his chance lead to a chaotic scramble in front but time expired with the visitors taking a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Shots were even at nine a piece with the shot map showing the Canucks enjoying the better of chances in front.

Second Period: Abbotsford Canucks 1 – San Diego Gulls 0

San Diego tried to come out with a push to start the second and seemed to be rolling until a combination of penalties lead to a Gulls Powerplay – which initially looked good until a Canucks shorthanded break saw a perfect saucer pass finished by an even better side to side move by Aatu Raty. 2-0 Canucks.

It was all an uphill climb from there and the period seemed to creep by with a lot of stop-start action and broken play.

The Gulls did manage to start to generate some momentum going their way – lead in most part by Nikita Nesterenko but a bad hooking penalty assessed to Carson Meyer in the neutral zone put a stop to the positive motion and the period expired with San Diego erasing the minor but going to the second intermission down by two and shots 11-8 on the period, 20-17 overall.

Third Period: Abbotsford Canucks 2 – San Diego Gulls 0

The third felt much like the middle frame – minus the penalties.

San Diego continued to push but were victims of their own desperation and the stingy Canucks defense.

Tristan Luneau provided a brief bright spark as he put on a show with the puck – causing not one but two Canucks players to fall by the wayside as he shifted and reverse-span away from would-be fore checkers en-route to making his own thrilling scoring chance.

Unfortunately it was just another one of those nights as the Gulls surrendered an empty net goal in the final three minutes while fans headed to the exits.

Rolan McKeown did manage to get one by Jiri Patera as he finished a play by Ryan Carpenter but it was too to late. 3-1 Canucks.

San Diego dropping yet another one to go 2-7-0 on the season.

Post Game Notes:

Consistency Is Key

As I have said – this team is slowly coming together – yet still faster than the last two seasons. What they need to do now is play that unstoppable force kind of game they can play – on a consistent basis. I still have every confidence in them but if they don’t start stringing together some winning streaks, they are going to once again run out of time too early in the season.