Gulls Complete Weekend Sweep of Falcons
March 9, 2003 - ECHL (ECHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release
SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Gulls (38-18-3) jumped out to an early lead behind a familiar face and held on to defeat the Fresno Falcons (30-23-7) 4-1 tonight in front of 9,332 fans at the San Diego Sports Arena.
Gulls leading scorer Mark Pederson had a hat trick, including two goals in the first 12 minutes of the game, and the Gulls never looked back. Pederson started the scoring early, beating Falcons' netminder Terry Friesen just 5:40 into the game, giving the Gulls a 1-0 lead. Six minutes later Pederson added his second goal of the game when he flipped a backhand past Friesen and the score was 2-0 San Diego at the end of the first period.
San Diego would extend its lead 5:45 into the second period when Sandro Sbrocca scored his sixth goal of the season on a rebound in front of the net to give the Gulls a 3-0 lead. Dan Cousineau and David Neale picked up assists on Sbrocca's goal.
Fresno had a golden opportunity to score after Sylvain Deschatelets received a double minor penalty for high-sticking at the 11:35 mark of the second period. But the Falcons could not convert and the score remained 3-0 through two periods.
Colin Embley broke up Trevor Koenig's shutout bid 2:10 into the third period with a power-play goal off of a pass from Cory Murphy. The goal would be Koenig's lone blemish on an otherwise perfect night in which the goalie was tested in the third period and tallied 31 saves for the game.
With a minute and a half remaining in the game, Pederson capped his third hat trick of the season when he was pulled down on his way to the open net and was awarded the goal, his 38th of the year.
Deschatelets assisted on both of Pederson's first-period goals and now has 32 assists this season.
Notes: With his three goals tonight, Pederson has tallied 26 points, 15 goals and three hat tricks in his last 13 games... San Diego is 30-8-2 since starting the season 8-10-1... Koenig picked up his second straight victory since coming back from a knee injury that caused him to miss 12 games... R.J. Enga remains on injured reserve... Ashlee Langdone remains out of the lineup with a concussion... Samy Nasreddine (back) and Mike Garrow (ankle) also remain out... Mike McGhan was placed on the season-ending injured list...
The Gulls close out their homestand Wednesday against the Idaho Steelheads, with game time set for 7 p.m. It will be a Karl Strauss Wild Weekday game, with discount parking and Karl Strauss Drafts. San Diego then goes up to Anchorage for a weekend set against the Aces. All games can be heard live on 1130AM-KSDO with Chris Ello calling the play-by-play. The Gulls' Internet radio show broadcasts live every Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on wsradio.com with Tera Black and Jeremy Zager hosting.
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