AHL San Diego Gulls

Colorado Doubles up Gulls

February 3, 2022 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls dropped a 4-2 decision to the Colorado Eagles tonight at Pechanga Arena San Diego.

Axel Andersson established a new career high with his third goal of the season and matched his point total from last season with 3-2=5 points on the campaign. Greg Printz earned the primary assist on the play and has collected 1-1=2 points over his last three games.

Benoit-Olivier Groulx scored his sixth goal of the season and has recorded points in four of his last five games (3-1=4), while scoring goals in six of his last 10 games (6-2=8) overall.

Alex Limoges and Greg Pateryn earned assists. Limoges has assists in two of his last three games (0-2=2) and has registered 4-2=6 points over his last nine games.

Lukas Dostal stopped 30-of-33 shots in the setback.

The Gulls will host the Tucson Roadrunners for a weekend back-to-back beginning Friday, Feb. 4 at Pechanga Arena San Diego (7 p.m. PT).

POSTGAME QUOTES

San Diego Gulls

Head Coach Joel Bouchard

On the performances of the players who returned to the lineup tonight:

You know what? They were good, they were engaged. They tried; a lot of them didn't play for a long time, but I cannot say that any of them didn't contribute. We needed that help, we've been fighting for a while now with a depleted lineup. So, those guys came in with a great attitude. Not the result we wanted, a few plays here and there, but we've got to keep working with the guys. There's not much we can do about past or what we went through. We've just got to grow through it and let's take some strides as a group and that's what I'm more looking for. I don't like the result. I like the effort, I like the intention. I don't think anybody came in and not tried to buy in, which is good.

On what led to Colorado taking over in the third period:

They're a good team, they're fast and we just backed off a little bit there. It wasn't a horrible period, but it was about two, three, four minutes then we just kind of paralyzed. That second goal hit us pretty hard, it cut our leg a little bit. So, it, just after that, we lost coverage and the puck seems to find the other team in an open spot and our mistake, we're paying our mistake. We're not going to point at anybody, point finger or anything. I just like after that, it took a couple more minutes, but we got going and we got a couple of chances. The guys are hanging in there together, but this adversity or the losing kind of streak here we're on is taking on everybody. Guys are working hard, we tried and that's normal that we get affected a little bit, but my job is to go back with them tomorrow and the only way you go out of it is not by panicking, but by staying in control and keep working on yourself and trying to be better.

On if he is seeing the level of play he is looking for:

If we just can be a little more consistent in games, which comes with maturity and you know, we have a few games left and two big games coming up this weekend at home so this is where I've got to work with them on that, that consistency. If you look a lot at a big part of the game there, we look pretty good. If you look at last week, that team came in seven days ago and like I said after the game, we hung in there. We fought in the third, but we were not close to being able to match up with them. Tonight, we were able to match up. Guys that came in the lineup helped and like I said, they didn't play in a long time so our job is to keep working with the guys. I feel, if we can get just a few plays in a row to connect a little more, get a little confidence, obviously which comes with winning, let's see where we are in a month, a month and a half.

Benoit-Olivier Groulx

On tonight's game:

I think we played a good game. Honestly, our first two periods were really good. And we started the third period we had some couple breaks down that cost us a lot. They scored one goal, then after that I felt we came out a bit flat and we had some good push towards the end. I think just two little breakdown really cost us the game. We gotta be better at that. Overall, I think we were right there, we were right there. Just gotta improve that and we're gonna get back in the wins section.

On what Colorado did well against them:

They have a big team, they're really fast. They can hit you hard, but we also have lot of big guys who are also really fast too. I think we can competed with them pretty much the whole game. We were right there all along. We had a lot of big hits that created us some of momentum too. We got to keep that in our game in order to get back into the win column. Overall, I think we had a great effort from the guys.

On if the team can build on this game:

You're right. We had a good game, but also, a good game in this league is not good enough to win a lot games in a row or to get into the win column after the slum that we are in right now. If we keep the way we were playing the first two periods during the third period, it would really help us. We're building on that right now. We have a young team so we all have to learn from our mistakes, but down the road when everything is going to be figured out, we're going to be a pretty dangerous team.

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