Gulls Can’t Corral Wranglers, Drop Opening Series | San Diego Gulls

Dec 3, 2022

By Brett Pickler/SanDiegoGulls.com

The San Diego Gulls fell 6-0 to the Calgary Wranglers at Pechanga Area San Diego.

The Wranglers’ momentum from final evening carried over into the opening interval. The Gulls took a penalty simply over a minute into the sport, giving Calgary the prospect to arrange their offense. San Diego struggled to get better from this and was outshot 19-5 within the first.

Goaltender Lukas Dostal managed to regulate the assault of Calgary, stopping 18 photographs. His first large save of the interval got here whereas the Gulls had been on the ability play. The Wranglers blocked a shot after which went down on a 2-on-0. Dostal stayed calm in web, dealing with the state of affairs with ease. Later, there was a short scare after he got here out of his crease to play the puck however mishandled it, making a wide-open web for the Wranglers. Middle Danny O’Regan shut down the tap-in with an impressive effort on the backcheck.

“I flip the puck over the blue line and someone else received again earlier than I did, fortunately,” O’Regan mentioned after the sport. “Dos (Gulls goaltender Lukas Dostal) tried to make a play on the puck, they usually made a superb play. I believe I received fortunate, the puck simply bounced over the child’s stick. I don’t know if I did an excessive amount of to assist nevertheless it’s a type of, it is enormous it stayed out and gave us an opportunity to remain within the recreation.”

This effort transitioned straight into an opportunity on the opposing finish for the Gulls. Proper wing Evan Weinger stole the puck within the excessive slot and delivered a dime to O’Regan driving the web. San Diego couldn’t convert on the prospect preserving the sport scoreless.

On the finish of the interval, Calgary discovered the again of the web on a good bounce. The Wranglers entered the zone with pace on an odd man rush and fired the puck on web. The shot deflected off a Calgary participant in entrance, touchdown straight on defenseman Colton Poolman’s stick. He fired it into the web, giving Calgary a 1-0 lead.

“Effectively, I believe the most important factor was we simply could not get the puck out of our finish,” head coach Roy Sommer mentioned. “I believed they did an excellent job at hemming us in, they took the boards away. You recognize, they form of performed with our excessive man and simply mainly smothered us in our personal finish and after we lastly received out of our personal finish, we simply could not muster sufficient offense to get something at their web.”

The Gulls began the second interval on the entrance foot. They went on the ability play 1:32 into the center body and commenced to create some offense. Proper wing Jacob Perreault snuck behind the Calgary protection throughout a regroup and located himself alone with goaltender Dustin Wolf. Perreault deked the goalie however misplaced his footing proper earlier than he shot inflicting him to crash into the web. After overview, the refs decided that the puck didn’t cross the objective line previous to the web coming off, preserving the rating at 1-0.

The Wranglers killed the penalty and located themselves again on the assault. They intercepted a move within the Gulls’ defensive finish, which created an on the spot alternative. Dostal made a desperation save, kicking out his proper leg on the preliminary providing, however Calgary regained the puck and related on a backdoor objective. They might rating once more on the 14:35 mark of the interval on the ability play. Defenseman Nick DiSimone discovered himself alone within the slot and hammered a slap shot via a display to offer his workforce a three-goal lead. Proper wing Matthew Phillips made it 4-0 with a backhand chip shot on a breakaway, making him the primary participant within the American Hockey League to succeed in 30 factors (15-15=30) within the 2022-23 season.

The third interval started with each groups within the penalty field. At one level, San Diego had a two-man benefit, however had been unable to transform on their probabilities. Because the interval progressed, it was laborious for the Gulls to generate offense. The Wranglers maintained constant stress within the offensive zone and iced the sport at 5-0 with a shot from the blue line that discovered it means via the display in entrance. Calgary would add another on the ability play for a remaining rating of 6-0.

Looking forward to subsequent weekend’s rematch in opposition to the Wranglers, O’Regan mentioned, “I believe we have been enjoying plenty of hockey and hasn’t been going properly for us, so perhaps this can be a superb reset for us. Get a couple of good practices in and simply attempt to reset mentally and bodily and hopefully get a pleasant little streak stepping into the precise means.”