Gulls Come Up Just Short In Home Opener Loss To Reign | San Diego Gulls

Oct 21, 2022

By Brett Pickler/SanDiegoGulls.com

The San Diego Gulls fell to the Ontario Reign 2-1 in an thrilling House Opener introduced by Cal Coast Credit score Union at Pechanga Enviornment San Diego. 

The Gulls, trying to bounce again following an 8-5 loss in Grand Rapids final weekend, had been welcomed residence by a thunderous crowd. 

“It was fairly loopy,” Gulls defenseman Josh Healey mentioned. “I imply we had nice followers tonight for the House Opener. The boys performed effectively, we had a lot of possibilities, ran right into a scorching goalie. Credit score to him, however I imply we had our possibilities. It was good recreation and we’ll be prepared tomorrow.”

From the opening draw, the 2 bitter rivals traded possibilities. The most effective probability of the opening interval for San Diego got here from Rocco Grimaldi on the 15:30 mark. He managed to flee Ontario’s protection and located himself alone on a breakaway. His shot beat the goalie, solely to hit the crossbar and maintain the sport scoreless. This may not be his solely probability of the sport, as he led the group with 11 pictures.

The motion continued as each groups battled to interrupt the tie and get an early benefit. The Reign almost broke by with 30 seconds left within the first interval, however Lukas Dostal stood tall and denied reigning AHL MVP, T.J. Tynan, on a breakaway. 

Within the second, San Diego went on the assault straight away, outshooting Ontario 9-1 within the first 5 minutes. The Reign couldn’t comprise the Gulls assault, trapping them in their very own zone and resulting in a penalty shot. Blake McLaughlin, tripped as he made his means towards the crease on a scoring change, took the shot, however couldn’t convert.   

The Gulls, beginning the third interval on the penalty kill,  managed to maintain the Reign’s formidable energy play off the board. The momentum, nevertheless, helped carry Ontario to its first purpose, as Aidan Dudas would rating at 3:04 of the ultimate body. The Reign would rating once more simply previous the midway level of the interval to offer themselves a two-goal benefit.

With the group down two, the Gulls pulled their goalie with just below 4 minutes to play within the recreation to offer them a 6-on-4 man benefit. This gamble would repay as Grimaldi discovered the again of the online to make it 2-1 with 3:46 left within the recreation. Nikolas Brouillard would choose up the help, giving him a three-game level streak.

“I am going to inform you what, we ran right into a hell of a goalie,” Gulls head coach Roy Sommer mentioned. “The those who got here tonight acquired to witness a goaltending battle. I feel we had 46,47 pictures on web, in all probability 25 scoring possibilities and just one went in. We hit a few posts. It wasn’t for a scarcity of effort or the best way we performed. Hell of an entertaining hockey recreation, I am going to inform you that.”

Their late push failed to search out the game-tying purpose, pushing San Diego’s all-time residence opener report to 3-5-0-0.

“Truthfully, we performed fairly effectively,” Healey mentioned. “We had a lot of possibilities. We might have tightened up a couple of issues within the (defensive) zone, however total, on the offensive facet, we did an amazing job shifting pucks up. We had a lot of possibilities and we’ve simply acquired to search out the again of the online tomorrow.”