Clang, Gulls Shut down San Jose
December 5, 2024 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release
The San Diego Gulls defeated the San Jose Barracuda in a 12-round shootout to pick up a 2-1 road victory tonight at Tech CU Arena.
Roland McKeown matched his single season AHL career high in goals scoring his seventh of the season with a power play tally in the second period. McKeown is tied for the league lead in goals among all AHL blueliners.
Nathan Gaucher scored his first career shootout goal on his first career attempt in the 12 th round to lift the Gulls to victory.
Nikita Nesterenko buried his first shootout goal of the season. He's now 4-for-7 in his AHL career.
Josh Lopina picked up his fifth assist of the season.
Calle Clang stopped 31-of-32 shots tonight for his third win of the year. He allowed just one goal on 12 Barracuda attempts.
The Gulls return home to battle the Bakersfield Condors on Friday night (7 p.m.) and the Ontario Reign on Saturday (6 p.m.) from Pechanga Arena San Diego.
POSTGAME QUOTES
SAN DIEGO GULLS
Center Nathan Gaucher
On being called on for the 12th round of the shootout
Yeah, I was just excited. I was watching the goalie for eleven rounds, so I thought, 'If this is going my way, I know what to do.' I was just ready to go and buried.
On his shootout-winning goal giving him a confidence boost
It feels good. I had a couple of chances, and I'm sticking with it for sure, putting one in the back of the net, it's good. But the best feeling is getting that win for your team. That was just a well-fought battle by us tonight, and we just kept utilizing that shootout.
On what the keys were for tonight's game
We just wanted to be hard to play against. Make their life harder, kill their speed, in their O-zone, in their rush plays. So if we can kill that and have some chances ourselves. That was our plan, and I think we executed it pretty good, and ended up with a win.
On this win being a fresh start for December
We just build off the things we've been doing good, the wins haven't been racking up for us. It's a good feeling. We know how to win, we know what we do well, so we just have to do it consistently and get some wins.
Assistant coach Kris Sparre
On what stood out in tonight's win over San Jose
Our competitive nature, for sure. Right from the start of the game, you could tell that we were on a mission. I think that was the challenge to the group that we can up our compete level. And we saw it really in every area of the ice tonight. Really proud of the guys. We thought we did a really good job in this one tonight.
On Nathan Gaucher's shootout-winning goal
A lot of poise. You get late in the shootout round, and you know everything's on the line, and for a young guy like that to go in, makes a great move on a great goaltender and buries it. Nathan did a lot of good things tonight, and we hope that's the scoring touch, or a big, big moment like that that'll get him going offensively.
On Calle Clang
Calle was awesome. I mean, there was every moment of that game when a shot went towards the net, you felt comfortable that he was going to make the save. And it's a sign of a good goaltender. He gave us a chance to win tonight. Really, all the ingredients you would need to win a hockey game were there tonight. Good goaltending, the penalty kill was good, went on the power play. It's a good night for us.
On ending the six-game skid
It's a great feeling. There's been a lot of change in our group this year, specifically early on, with guys going up to Anaheim, guys coming back, guys coming up from Tulsa, and so we've had to re-establish our brand of hockey. And you saw it tonight. We're going to need a lot more of that if we're going to win hockey games in this league. Bringing that competitive nature and that spirit to every game is what we're going to need to give ourselves a chance like what we saw tonight. It's just a start for us.
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