San Diego Gulls: Bi-Weekly Report 1

By Thomas Harrington

Welcome to the first San Diego Gulls bi-weekly report of the season. Even though the Gulls have only been playing for a little more than a week, they have played over two different weekends, so it seemed like the perfect time to put the first of these together for this season. In every bi-weekly report, you can expect to find a recap of all the games the Gulls played, a quick preview of their upcoming games, who San Diego’s best players have been, and who might make their way up to Anaheim based on their play. As the season progresses, I’ll also start giving updates on the playoff picture, but it’s a little too early to go into that right now.

The Gulls have a 2-1 record through their first three games of the season, defeating the Tucson Roadrunners 7-6 in the season opener and splitting a pair of games against the Texas Stars. As expected, San Diego’s strength has been their offense in the early going, and their defense has struggled at times. With Shea Theodore, Brandon Montour, and Jaycob Megna in the NHL or on other teams, the Gulls defensive core is still coming together and figuring things out. However, their offense has looked great and has scored 13 goals in three games, and 12 of those came in two contests.

In the season opener in Tucson, the Roadrunners got on the board first as former Duck and Gull Emerson Etem got the scoring started. They had a 2-0 lead less than five minutes into the game. Kevin Roy scored San Diego’s first goal of the season to cut the lead to one, but Tucson made it 3-1 just a couple minutes later. From that point on, the Gulls started taking over the game, as Sam Carrick and Steve Oleksy scored goals at the end of the first to tie the game. It was Oleksy’s first goal with his new team. In the second, Andy Welinski and Roy both scored power play goals to give the Gulls a 5-3 lead, and Nicolas Kerdiles made it 6-3 just over six minutes into the second period. Tucson cut the lead to 6-4, but just over 20 seconds later Mitch Hults made it 7-4. The Roadrunners got one more goal before the period ended to make it 7-5. After 12 combined goals through 40 minutes, Tucson scored the only goal of the third and the Gulls were able to hang on for the 7-6 win. Both Roy and Kerdiles finished with three points in the contest, while Marcus Pettersson, Spencer Abbott, Corey Tropp, and Hults all had two points. Kevin Boyle made 36 saves on 30 shots.

San Diego’s second game of the season was also their home opener. The Gulls had another slow start and fell behind 2-0 in the first period again, but weren’t able to crawl out of the hole this time. The score remained 2-0 through 40 minutes and lasted until Austin Ortega scored a powerplay goal to cut the lead in half. That was the only goal the Gulls scored, and Texas scored an empty net goal, giving them the 3-1 win. Mike McKenna stopped 27 of 28 shots, including a number of high-quality chances in the second half of the game, and was the primary reason why the Gulls only got one goal in this game. Boyle stopped 21 of 23 shots in the loss.

After dropping their home opener to the Stars, the Gulls were looking for some revenge the next night and had their best game of the season. After falling behind 2-0 in each of the first two games of the season, Alex Dostie opened the scoring for San Diego just over five minutes into the game. It was Dostie’s first AHL goal in his first AHL game, a good start to his professional career. The Stars tied the game before the first ended, but it was all San Diego after that. Oleksy scored his second of the season just over a minute into the second period. Mike Liambas and Roy made it a 4-1 game before the second was over, and Giovanni Fiore scored his first professional goal to make it 5-1 in the third. Boyle was in net for the third consecutive game and stopped 19 of 20 shots.

The Gulls will play five games of the next two weeks. They’ll start by traveling to Stockton for a pair of games before returning home to host Stockton. After three games against the Heat, they’ll travel to Texas to face the Stars again and then head to San Antonio to take on the Rampage.

Three games into the season and Roy is leading the Gulls with four points in three games, while Jacob Larsson, Kalle Kossila, Welinski, Tropp, Oleksy, and Kerdiles all have three. Kerdiles did that in only one game as he has already been recalled to Anaheim because of injuries. It’s unclear how long he’ll be in Anaheim, but for now, it looks like the Gulls won’t have the services of one of their top forwards. Larsson’s three points have come in two games because he didn’t play in San Diego’s second game of the season. After missing that game, Larsson picked up two assists in his first game back, a good sign from the young defenseman.

In terms of players who could make their way to Anaheim, Kerdiles is obviously at the front of the list since he’s already in Anaheim. After him, I have to think that Roy could be considered by the Ducks. As the Ducks struggle to score, especially on the powerplay, a player with two powerplay goals in three games could be incredibly useful. Fiore has two points in two games and he could make his way back to Anaheim after starting the season with the Ducks. With the Gulls still figuring out their blueline and Anaheim having seven healthy defensemen on their roster, it’s unlikely any defensemen will be called up soon. However, Pettersson has been impressive early in the season and is probably the most likely to make his way to Anaheim if anyone is needed soon.

It’s early, and the Gulls need to work out their issues on defense, but their offense is looking strong. The Gulls are loaded at forward and will hopefully carry them as the season progresses. Once San Diego’s defensive pairs are figured out, the Gulls could become one of the more dangerous teams in the AHL.

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October 20th, 2017

Filed under: Ducks News Tagged: Bi-weekly report, ducksnpucks, san diego gulls