Gulls Down Ice Dogs, 5-2
March 1, 2003 - ECHL (ECHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release
Long Beach, Calif. - The San Diego Gulls jumped out to a three-goal lead and never looked back, beating the Long Beach Ice Dogs 5-2 Friday night, before 4,119 at the Long Beach Arena. The Gulls have now won nine straight over their So. Cal rivals and 11 of 12 this season.
San Diego (34-18-3) out-shot Long Beach 49 to 23, pretty much dominating all three periods, but Danielle Dubé did her part to keep the Dogs in the game. Unfortunately for Dubé and company, the Gulls' 3-0 lead was too much to overcome.
Sandro Sbrocca got things started for the Gulls with his fifth goal midway through the first period. Sbrocca blocked Chris Peyton's shot at the San Diego blue line, hunted down the loose puck and blasted a slap shot past Dubé. Clayton Read put the Blue and Orange up by two with his first of the night at 13:20, beating Dubé right on the doorstep. It was Sbrocca's fist goal in 18 games and Read's first in 11 games.
Read extended the Gulls lead to a comfortable three goals with his second of the game â 18th of the season â 3:08 into the second. After skating out of the corner and past an Ice Dogs defenseman, Read put the puck between his legs, picked it up and backhanded it home.
The Ice Dogs (17-34-3) scored two goals 79 seconds apart later in the second period to quickly draw within one. Richard Paul got things started with his first goal in a Long Beach uniform, one-timing a shot past Cris Classen at 6:25. Denis Ladouceur made it a 3-2 game with his seventh marker, tapping in a rebound off Nathan Horne's shot at 7:36.
Long Beach kept the deficit at one, despite being out-shot 23-6 in the middle period. The Dogs put the pressure back on throughout the third, but Classen's stingy goaltending foiled the attack.
David Neale, who hasn't scored in 16 straight games, found the back of net with 3:32 left in the third to seal the San Diego victory. While being tied up, Neale took a pass from Sbrocca and slid home his third of the season. Mark Pederson added an empty-netter, his 35th goal of the season, to officially put the game away.
Notes: The Gulls need two more points to clinch a playoff berth... With his empty net goal, Pederson extended his point streak to eight games. He has 20 points in the last 10 games (12g, 8a), including two hat tricks... Dennis Purdie was activated from injured reserve this week... R.J. Enga went on IR for the first time in his career... Mike McGhan and Cory Cyrenne are both still suffering from concussion-like symptoms... Mike Garrow (ankle) and Samy Nasreddine (back) also remain out with injuries... After spending all season with the American Hockey League's Hershey Bears, (Marc) Busenburg made his Gulls debut tonight... Rob Voltera still remains with Hershey...
The Gulls and Ice Dogs clash again at the Long Beach Arena Saturday at 7 p.m. The same two teams will meet at the Sports Arena Sunday at 5 p.m. Sunday's game will be the third of six "McDonald's Nights" with "Skate with the Gulls" held immediately following the game. Cox/Time Warner Channel 4 will provide live television coverage. 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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