Jan 23, 2024

By Morgan Korovec/SanDiegoGulls.com  

For the San Diego Gulls, Tuesday night’s tightly contested match at Pechanga Arena San Diego proved that the third time’s a charm as they captured a 2-1 SO victory over the Abbotsford Canucks in their third stand over the last four days.  

“A really solid 60 minutes of hockey,” head coach Matt McIlvane said. “I thought that our start was very stingy. We didn’t give up very much at all in the first period. It was a great response from a competitiveness perspective. From game to game, we got our directional game going and I think it opened up a bit in the second. Calle had to be the hero a couple of times, and in the end, it just turns into a gutsy effort to get a win.”

Tensions were high to open the first frame as the teams broke onto the ice seeking to clutch the win in the series finale, but both found themselves unable to discover the back of the net by the end of the first. 

After a scoreless opening frame, the Canucks broke the ice at 8:58 in the second period as Danila Klimovich sent a long shot that put Abbotsford on the scoreboard first with his second goal of the season.  

Pavol Regenda wouldn’t let that lead fly for long, as minutes later he rocketed his 11th goal of the season past Arturs Silovs, pulling the score even at 10:40 in the middle frame. 

“Maybe the most complete game that I’ve seen from him since he’s been back,” McIlvane said. “His skating was excellent, his battle level was excellent, and it was a heck of a play from [Gulls forward Andrew Agozzino] and a great shot to put us one-one on a big response goal. He was solid the whole game and that’s what we expect from (Regenda).” 

The teams kicked off the third battling to break the tie, with neither side letting off the gas through the end of regulation, leaving the dispute to be settled in overtime.  

The battle escalated to a shootout, where Ben King found the back of the net just before a powerful push from Nikita Nesterenko, who netted the shootout-winning goal for the Gulls. 

Tuesday night saw stellar saves from Calle Clang, who remained determined through the shootout and blocked 24-of-25 shots on the night. 

“We had a tough period there in October, November too,” Clang said. “Now, we find a way to win hockey games and I think our thing right now is to be consistent and try to do those performances each and every night here, and same for me too. First couple months have been tough. I’ve been struggling a little bit, but right now I feel awesome and hope to continue this streak here.” 

Agozzino tallied an assist on Regenda’s goal, giving him his 20th helper of the season (8-20=28).  

“We’re going to have a day off tomorrow. Trying to get the bodies ready to go,” Clang said. “On Friday, it’s going to be a tough weekend here with two games, and we got Milwaukee on Tuesday. So, just trying to get the body ready to go and it’s going to be a fun trip.”

The Gulls will flock to Wells Fargo Arena to battle it out with the Iowa Wild for back-to-back games on Friday, Jan. 26 (5 p.m. PST) and Saturday, Jan. 27 (4 p.m. PST).