Gulls Beat Fresno, 5-2

Published on February 25, 2004 under ECHL (ECHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


FRESNO, Calif. – After the Falcons snapped San Diego's 14-game home winning streak on Saturday, the Gulls wanted some revenge. Well... they got it with a 5-2 victory over Fresno Wednesday night at the Save Mart Center.

It didn't come easy though. The Gulls built a 3-0 lead midway through the second period, thanks to goals by Sandro Sbrocca, Sylvain Deschatelets and Billy Tibbetts. The Falcons scored two straight to make things interesting, but Tibbetts and Mark Pederson restored order with back-to-back tallies midway through the third period.

San Diego (36-12-6) remains tied with the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies for the second-best overall record in the ECHL, both trailing the front-running Wheeling Nailers by two points. The Gulls now open a four-point cushion over the Louisiana IceGators for the top spot in the Western Conference and maintain their six-point lead over the Las Vegas Wranglers for first place in the Pacific Division.

The win – combined with Las Vegas' victory over the Long Beach Ice Dogs Wednesday night – also moves the Gulls one point away from clinching a playoff spot. Any combination of a San Diego win/overtime loss or a Bakersfield Condors loss/overtime loss will officially claim a postseason position for the Blue and Orange.

Terry Friesen single-handedly beat the Gulls Saturday night, turning aside 51 of 54 San Diego shots. The theme continued in the first period Wednesday night as the Fresno netminder stood on his ahead again.

San Diego peppered Friesen with 15 shots in the opening period, a bunch of which came at point-blank range. It could've easily have been a three- or four-goal lead for the Gulls after the first, but they had to settle for a 1-0 advantage as Sbrocca was the only one to score – at 16:33.

Chris Gobert started the play by digging the puck out from behind the net. The rookie forward then whipped a backhand pass across the crease to Sbrocca, who banged in his fifth goal of the season and second in as many games.

The Gulls kept pouring on the offense in the second period and this time there was nothing Friesen could do about it. Deschatelets scored his 16th of the season at 1:49 and Tibbetts added a short-hander at 8:55 to give San Diego a commanding 3-0 lead.

Deschatelets got his after some solid forechecking inside the Falcons' zone. Dean Tiltgen and Greg Barber cycled the puck down low before Barber fed the high slot to Deschatelets, who ripped it home. Tibbetts' tally came on a Fresno turnover. Gobert stole a clearing pass along the right wing boards and found a wide-open Tibbetts, who weaved his way to the net and buried his first goal of the night.

Fresno (15-32-6) finally got on the board at 13:57 of the second, taking advantage of a Gulls turnover. Michael Kiesman stole the puck at the San Diego blue line, skated into the zone and flung a wrist shot past Trevor Koenig for his first goal of the night.

Kiesman notched his second of the game – 13th the season – 5:57 into the third, drawing the Falcons to within one. After taking setup feeds from Scott Borders and Kris Porter, Kiesman grabbed the puck at the near post and knocked it in.

The Falcons had all the momentum, but then got into penalty trouble midway through the final stanza. They were assessed a bench penalty for too many men on the ice and got burned when Tibbetts notched his second of the game – 15th of the season – on San Diego's ensuing power play. Tibbetts skated to the high slot, took a pass from Mike Garrow and blasted a one timer past Friesen.

Fresno took two more penalties moments later and Pederson cashed in the five-on-three power-play goal. Garrow set it up again, delivering a cross-ice pass to Pederson, who rocketed in his league-leading 37th goal.

Notes: Koenig is now tied for second among ECHL goaltenders with 26 wins. He entered Wednesday tied with the fourth-best goals-against-average in the league... Head coach Steve Martinson split up the red-hot line of Pederson, Barber and Deschatelets. The trio combined for 100 points (39g, 61a) in 23 games prior to Wednesday night... Pederson has 44 points (26g, 18a) in his last 29 games... Barber has 38 points (13g, 25a) in his last 24 games and leads all rookies with 59 points overall... Deschatelets has 44 points (11g, 33a) in his last 29 games and has scored a goal in five straight games... The Gulls are unbeaten in 18 of their last 20 games (15-2-3) and 31 of their last 36 (27-5-4), outscoring their opponents 131-82... San Diego is 13-7-6 on the road this season, including a 2-1 mark in Fresno... Brian Gornick was recalled by the American Hockey League's Cincinnati Mighty Ducks... Josh Gratton remains with AHL's Mighty Ducks... Dennis Purdie (sprained shoulder) and Kevin Grant (neck strain) both remain on the injured list...

The Gulls conclude their brief two-game road trip Friday in Las Vegas, with game-time set for 7 p.m. San Diego returns home Saturday to take on the South Carolina Stingrays for the first time ever. It will be a 5:05 p.m. start and Gulls caps, courtesy of Channel 4 San Diego, will be given to the first 7,000 fans in attendance. All games can be heard live on KPOP 1360AM and www.sandiegogulls.com with Chris Ello calling the play-by-play. The next edition of the Gulls Internet Radio show, hosted by Tera Black and Jeremy Zager on wsRadio.com, will air live Monday, March 8 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. To view pictures from this season, visit "www.sdgullsphotos.com" and "http://home.earthlink.net/~zerodog."

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