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AHL San Diego Gulls

Four Straight Lift Gulls in Season Opener

February 6, 2021 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The Gulls scored four consecutive goals to stage a 4-1 win over the Bakersfield Condors in their season-opening game at FivePoint Arena, the club's first regular season contest in 331 days. The Gulls now own a 4-2-0-0 record in six season-opening games.

Lukas Dostal made 29 saves on 30 shots in his professional debut, becoming the first netminder in Gulls history to record a win in his first AHL start.

Chase De Leo scored two goals, including the game-winner, at the 5:07 and 11:15 mark of the second period, and also added an assist for a career-tying three-point performance (2-1=3). De Leo recorded a career high eight shots on net and a +3 rating. In three season-opening games with the Gulls, De Leo has recorded 3-2=5 points.

Trevor Zegras earned two assists (0-2=2) in his professional debut. Zegras had three multi-assist performances in four preseason contests (0-6=6).

Kodie Curran recorded his first career AHL goal with 5:00 remaining in the second period and added a +3 rating.

Matt Lorito scored his first goal with the Gulls at the 6:44 mark of the third period.

Jacob Perreault recorded an assist to mark his first professional point in his professional debut.

Simon Benoit and Antoine Morand each earned an assist.

Jack Badini, Jamie Drysdale, Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Brayden Tracey each made their AHL debut tonight.

The Gulls conclude their back-to-back home set against Bakersfield tomorrow, Feb. 6 at FivePoint Arena in Irvine, Calif. (5 p.m.).

POSTGAME QUOTES

SAN DIEGO GULLS

Chase De Leo

On his strong start to the season

I took it upon myself. Nobody is going to do it for you. I've been a pro long enough now to feel comfortable. I think in the last training camp that just passed, I felt really comfortable. I felt like I belong. I think that's an added confidence, knowing all that work I put in got me super prepared. I'm playing on the power play this season and I've never really been on the power play before. I'm obviously more than happy at that opportunity. Playing on that top line with [Sam Carrick] and [Trevor Zegras] has been so far so good. It's nice to have a little chemistry together and let the hard work pay off.

On the second period

Not much was said. I think we just took it upon ourselves. Obviously, it's been a long time and a little different adjustment playing games here rather than at Pechanga Arena. With no fans either, it's a little bit different. I think we're just getting comfortable as a group. We're going to be in situations where we're maybe down a goal or two. That resiliency, not giving up and knowing we're going to come back no matter how much we're down or even when we're ahead we have to pretend like we're down. Keep the pedal to the metal.

On missing Gulls fans

Nothing really compares to our fans that we have at Pechanga [Arena], especially tonight because it would have been a $2 Bud Light night. Those get pretty wild and pretty loud. I gave a stick tap to the cutouts of my farm animals and my dog in the first row. I was pretending those were our loud fans at Pechanga. It's not quite the same but we're making the most of it.

Kodie Curran

On his goal

It was a bit of a weird goal but obviously when you're playing with a guy like Zegras, their line was capitalizing all night. I know he tried something fancy before the goal and I was an audience, but for him to find me and have it bank off a couple of things, it's emotional for me just because of the past to get here. I just try to always make the most of every opportunity so to see that one go in was a lot of hard work paid off. I was really excited to help my teammates out.

On the team's improved play in the second period

I think it took us a little bit to get our feet going. There were a lot of turnovers by us in the first period. We wanted to take care of the puck a little bit more. [Head Coach Kevin Dineen] and the coaches did a good job of getting us back on track for the second and third. We simplified and we took it to them. We used our strengths, which is obviously our skill and just being simple. You've got to start off being simple to have success in this league. It's such a hard league to score in, very defensive and great players. That's a skilled team on the other side there. We know we're going to get their best every night. They kind of took it to us in the first period, but we just settled things down, worked a little bit harder and took care of the puck even more. It helped our game out.

On Lukas Dostal

He's an unbelievable kid. I don't think a lot of people see himself away from the rink. He's a pro through and through. He's a young guy but it seems like he's been in this league for 10 years with how he handles himself, how he plays every single day and prepares. He's got a great goalie coach in Jeff Glass who keeps him really calm and keeps him on the tracks. When there's a guy like that in net, whose really confident, especially at his age, he's helping us out. We got some veteran guys on the back end and we've got some young guys. For him to be solid like that for us, gives us the confidence to play like we did in front of him.

Head Coach Kevin Dineen

On the win

We liked the start to our game. I thought we had some good pace and some good decision-making. Bakersfield brought in a big, big team that I thought looked fast. I think part of what made them look fast was, as the first period wore on, we tended to make some costly decisions that ended up coming back towards out net. I loved the way Dostal played. I thought he was very solid for us. We don't want that to be part of our M.O. where our goalies has to make a bunch of really quality saves before we get going. We certainly settled in in the second period and obviously Sam Carrick's line had a strong night. I think as a team we got better as the game went along.

On Lukas Dostal

He's just chill in the net. He makes some things look easy. They only had one power lay but there were a couple tough scrambles as the game was winding down. That's what I really liked, in those key areas where they were really pushing to try to scrape something together there, he had a really high compete level and had to work really hard to get on top of the puck. Very solid effort from our netminder.

On the rookies making their AHL debuts

I think you've really got to realize that guys, with the level they're coming and being 18 or 19 years old playing against comparable players, there's such a huge difference. Bakersfield brings a big, strong veteran team into our building and it's a different game. There are little details to the game and we're going to make that's not only something we want out of them, that's part of our identity. I go back to my veteran group. I know I've got some real quality guys on the blue line who have been around and some forwards that have had different experiences. Those are good things for the kids and that was a good experience for them. The pace was higher and the quality of play was higher. I think when you're around that, your game rises to that level.

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American Hockey League Stories from February 6, 2021


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