Gulls Win Fourth Straight
February 7, 2018 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release
San Diego won their fourth consecutive game following a 5-1 victory over the Iowa Wild at Valley View Casino Center. The Gulls swept the two-game season series over the Wild for the second straight season to improve to 4-0-0 all-time. San Diego has also won nine of their last 10 games against Central Division opponents and 13-6-1-0 all-time. San Diego killed all Iowa's lone power play opportunity and have now killed 11 straight penalties and 21 of their last 22 penalties against (95.5%) the last seven games.
Kevin Boyle made 32 saves for his third consecutive win. In his last 10 appearances, Boyle has posted an 8-2-0 record with a 2.07 goals-against average (GAA) and .938 save percentage (SV%). Boyle is also 8-2-0 his last 10 home appearances where he has recorded a 1.82 GAA and .945 SV%.
Kalle Kossila opened the scoring at 9:47 of the first period with his third goal in as many games, his 12th goal and team-leading 33rd point of the season. Kossila has collected 7-15=22 points in his last 19 games and 27 points in his last 23 games (10-17=27).
Corey Tropp earned his 16th assist of the season to extend his point streak to four games (2-3=5). Tropp has scored 13 points (7-6=13) in his last 13 games and 23 points (11-12=23) in his last 20 games.
Defenseman Steven Oleksy earned his third multi-point game of the season with a goal and assist (1-1=2). The goal marked his sixth of the season and his 100th career AHL point (19-81=100).
Jaycob Megna scored his first goal of the season at 2;27 of the third period and added an assist for his second multi-point game of the season. The goal marked his first tally since Feb. 25, 2017 vs. Rockford.
Defenseman Andy Welinski recorded an assist for the third consecutive game (0-3=3) to tie his longest career assist streak from Oct. 14-20 (0-4=4).
Joe Blandisi scored his eighth goal of the season at 10:37 of the first period. Blandisi now has nine points in his last 10 games (5-4=9).
Giovanni Fiore netted his 12th goal of the season while Sam Carrick earned his 99th career AHL assist.
POSTGAME QUOTES
San Diego Gulls
Kevin Boyle
On his 32 saves
You know I think all around it was a good team win tonight. I think that they came out flying there in the first few minutes but we weathered their storm, but I feel like after we got those two goals we were pretty good going forward with the rest of the game.
On what he attributes his successful starts to
The guys in front of me, you know, they make my job pretty easy. We've done a good job of getting some momentum going for the rest of the year here.
On the team's defensive play
I think that we are blocking a lot of shots and if we are not blocking shots we are boxing guys out, so it's making my job very easy so all I have to do is make the first save and if there is a rebound there they have done a good job of clearing the puck.
On being undefeated against Iowa
They have a great team over there. They have some really fast guys and some really skilled guys, and I think we got some pretty lucky bounces tonight, and some calls that went our way and some bounces that went our way. They have a great team, I think we just got lucky.
Jaycob Megna
On his first goal of the season
It was great to finally get off the schneid there and help the team out and extend our lead [in the third period]. It was a big one for us.
On the teams strong defensive play
I think we took care of the puck. Early we were a little careless and they got some chances and (Boyle) stood in tall for us. As the game went on I thought we did a better job of taking care of it. When a team is that aggressive you are able to exploit them a little bit, and once you get in their zone and tire them out I thought we did a good job going to the net.
On keeping the momentum going
Just one game at a time, that's the way we try and approach every day and every practice. Just try and get better and you know we won four but we want the next one. The next one's always the most important.
On preparing for a back-to-back in San Jose this weekend
It's definitely going to be a different feel, I think we need to lean on that game we played against Tucson at 10 a.m. and try and channel that. It doesn't matter what time, it doesn't matter who it is, we have to execute and play the way we are capable of.
Head Coach Dallas Eakins
On Kevin Boyle
He's stopping the puck, that's for sure. From the bench he just looks big. He looks like a big, square, sub-zero refrigerator in there and really calm. I always like Kevin's game when he's not making spectacular saves, but he is just getting over and they are hitting him. I think when goalies make spectacular saves they are usually out of position. Kevin has been nothing but solid for us and we are really encouraged with his play and we are really proud that he has hung in there and still swinging, competing for ice-time all the time
On being undefeated against Iowa
I'm not a big believer in those things. I thought we went into their building earlier this year and played a hell of a road game. Tonight we were on our heels early. It took us a little while to get going but we were patient with our game. We knew these were critical moments and we were able to capitalize on our chances where either Kevin bailed us out or we had some big blocks tonight.
On preparing for a back-to-back in San Jose this weekend
We are just going to keep going with what we are trying to pound home. The next game is just as important as tonight's, and the next game is just as important as the last game of the season. We are in a critical moment and in critical games, and that's not going to stop right through the end of the year.
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American Hockey League Stories from February 7, 2018
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