AHL San Diego Gulls

Gulls Continue Dominance at Home

Published on February 28, 2018 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


San Diego shut out the San Antonio Rampage 3-0 tonight at Valley View Casino Center for their fifth consecutive home win. In the season-high five straight home wins, the Gulls have outscored opponents 23-4. The Gulls have also won nine of their last 11 contests (9-2-0-0) and 14 of 20 (14-6-0-0). San Diego concluded the month of February 7-2-0-0 to improve to 25-6-0-1 in the month all-time (.797%).

Reto Berra stopped all 26 shots faced in his second shutout of the season and fifth of his career. Berra improved to 12-7-0 this season and 7-3-0 with a 2.10 goals-against average and .939 save percentage in his last 10 games.

Corey Tropp scored for the second consecutive game and earned his eighth multi-point effort of the season. Tropp opened the scoring with his 13th goal of the season at 19:34 of the first period and earned his 31st point of the season with an assist. Tropp now has 31 points (13-18=31) in 31 games this season.

Kalle Kossila tallied his 14th goal and team-leading 39th point 15 seconds into the second period to push the lead to 2-0. Kossila now has 2-3=5 points in his last five games.

Kevin Roy extended the lead to 3-0 at 7:14 of the third period, his 10th goal of the season.

Sam Carrick is now riding a season-high five-game point streak (3-5=8) after earning an assist on Roy's goal. Carrick surpassed his previous season high four-game point streak from Nov. 24-Dec. 5, 2017 (1-3=4). Carrick has recorded 12 points (4-8=12) in his last nine games and 5-18=23 points in his last 21 contests.

Nic Kerdiles tallied two assists (0-2=2) for his 25th and 26th points of the season. Kerdiles has scored 2-5=7 points his last six games and 12 points (4-8=12) his last 10.

Andy Welinski earned his 24th assist of the season and 17th on the power play. His 17 power-play assists rank tied for second among AHL leaders and his 5-17=22 power-play points rank second among AHL defensemen. The assist also extended his home scoring streak to a season high five straight games.

Tonight's attendance was 6.908.

POSTGAME QUOTES

San Diego Gulls

Nic Kerdiles

On the team's defensive effort

It was awesome. It started with Yogi (Reto Berra). He had a heck of a game for us and we felt confident with him back there. He had a couple of saves for us that bailed us. Defensively everyone was making sure to stay on the defensive side of the puck and it was just a good overall game of us.

On limiting the opponent's scoring chances

I think any game you can come and start off with a strong defensive mindset, that's going to help you out and create chances offensively since you don't spend as much time in the defensive zone. I think it worked out for the best tonight.

Sam Carrick

On his season-high five-game point streak

I think we are just trying to create chances when it's there, but at the same time we don't want to force plays and be defensively irresponsible. It's part of our game to shut down their top line and create offense.When the chances are there we want to create offense.

On playing in front of the home crowd

It's great to be back. We love playing here in front of our own fans. It gives us a great boost of energy, especially after those back-to-back losses. We had gotten away from our game a little bit, so coming into tonight it was a must-win for us. They were a desperate team over there and we knew they were going to come out strong, but we did a great job overall.

Reto Berra

On his shutout

Really good. We had control of the game the whole time, I think. It wasn't a very pretty game. It was a battle but we scored some nice goals. Overall I'm really happy. Normally when you have a shutout the whole team plays really good in front of you.

On facing a lower volume of shots

I don't mind the shots as long as they are from the outside. It's a different game for a goalie. Especially today in the first and second periods there wasn't a lot of action for me. Mentally it's a different game for me. In the third period they had some good chances, so I'm really happy with my game and the whole effort tonight.

Head Coach Dallas Eakins

On the defensive effort

It was excellent. We had talked about it a lot and we were looking for a big response, especially for our D unit, and I thought they were excellent. Our defenseman were great. Reto was excellent as well and our forwards were doing their best to help. That's what you get. You get a real gutsy effort. On the other side, it's special teams. Our penalty kill was great, we were able to sneak in one on the power play, and that is how you are going to win games this time of year.

On the importance of the win

I don't care what time of year it is, every game is a huge game. You live and you die with them. Certainly nice to get the points here. I have always found March and April to go by very, very quickly.

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American Hockey League Stories from February 28, 2018


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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