AHL San Diego Gulls

Gulls Complete Three-Goal Comeback to Win 4-3

Published on January 3, 2016 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


SAN ANTONIO, TX - The San Diego Gulls rallied from a 3-0 deficit at AT&T Center in San Antonio, scoring the game's final four goals unanswered to storm back and beat the Rampage by a final score of 4-3. The Gulls (17-12-0-1) made it back-to-back wins in San Antonio and finished with four of six points in their Texas, New Year's weekend, road trip.

Brian McGrattan's deflection flipped over the head of Rampage goalie Spencer Martin and into the net at 17:01 of the third period for the game-winning goal, redirecting a forehand shot from Brandon Montour in the slot. The Gulls out-shot San Antonio 14-to-3 in the third during their furious comeback.

Montour snapped a twelve-game goalless streak when he fired home the game's equalizer on the power play 1:41 into the third period, knotting the score at 3-3. It was Montour's AHL-leading 19th power play point of the season and the Gulls' 30th power play goal.

Early action suggested the Rampage (14-13-7-0) would be able to snap a home-ice winless streak of nine games. San Antonio's Borna Rendulic earned the game's first goal on a back-door sitter to finish a 4-on-2 rush down the ice, making it 1-0 Rampage at 6:26 of the first period. Michael Shumacher's deflection net-front of a Chris Bigras blue line slap shot increased the San Antonio advantage to 2-0 with 3:48 left in the opening frame.

Bigras scored 4:17 into the second period to build out a 3-0 Rampage lead, a deficit from which the Gulls had not come back all season.

This afternoon in San Antonio would prove to be different, however, as San Diego launched the comeback bid on a perfectly executed 3-on-2 rush, with passes from Chris Mueller and Max Friberg connecting to Joseph Cramarossa, who finished glove-side for his seventh goal of the season, cutting the lead to 3-1 at the 10:57 mark of the second.

Before the next timeout, the Gulls would find the net once again, this time on Antoine Laganiere's roof-shot rebound of a Tim Jackman shot that fired off the back dashers and onto Laganiere's stick at the doorstep for a 3-2 score at 14:36. The Gulls finished the third period comeback to win for the first time all season when trailing after forty minutes (1-12-0-0).

The Gulls will travel back to San Diego on Monday morning and begin preparation for a three-game home stand, commencing on Friday night with the Charlotte Checkers in town for back-to-back games.

NOTES: The Gulls improved to 10-1-0-1 in one-goal games this season, the top mark in the AHL to date...Matt Hackett stopped 20 of 23 shots to earn the win in net for San Diego, improving to 5-4-0 on the season...Tim Jackman, Jaycob Megna and Mike Sgarbossa all picked up lone assists in the victory...San Diego forward Stefan Noesen hit the post with an empty-net bid but came up scoreless on the night, ending a seven-game points streak (3-5=8)...the win marked the first time all season that San Diego rallied from a 3-0 deficit...Joseph Cramarossa was awarded a penalty shot in the 3-3 tie at 12:40 after drawing a penalty from behind on a clean rush at net; his penalty shot was saved by Rampage goalie Spencer Martin off the pad...the Gulls improved to 15-5-0-1 in games where they score on the power play...the three shots allowed in the third period by San Diego were their fewest allowed in a third period to date.

THREE STARS

1st Star: SD Brian McGrattan (GWG); 2nd Star: SD Brandon Montour (1-1=2); 3rd star: SA Chris Bigras (1-1=2)

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American Hockey League Stories from January 3, 2016


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