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Gulls Down Ice Dogs In Shootout, 4-3

December 16, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


SAN DIEGO – Curtis Brown's goal in the fifth round of the shootout and Chris Lynch's two goals in regulation lifted the San Diego Gulls to a 4-3 win over the Long Beach Ice Dogs Wednesday night at the Sports Arena. San Diego finishes its season long homestand with a 7-2-0 record and moves within five points of first place.

Lynch also chipped in with an assist, while Mike Garrow and Mark Pederson each notched a goal and an assist to lead the offensive attack for the Blue and Orange. Eddy Ferhi, making his first start of the season, finished with 34 saves en route to his first victory.

With the win, San Diego (11-7-2) moves into fifth place in the West Division with 24 points, five back of the first-place Bakersfield Condors. The Gulls are now three points out of second and one point out of fourth, while maintaining games in hand on all teams ahead of them in the standings. Long Beach (12-8-3) picks up a point and is now tied with the Idaho Steelheads for second place in the West, two points behind Bakersfield.

Garrow gave the Gulls an early 1-0 lead, notching his third goal 7:16 into the first period. Pederson had the puck along the right wing boards and fed a centering pass to a streaking Garrow, who redirected it past Long Beach goaltender Olivier Michaud.

Long Beach drew even 13:08 into the first on Joe Cardarelli's eighth goal of the season. After the puck was dumped into the San Diego zone, Paul Spadafora stole it in the left wing corner and backhanded a pass to Cardarelli, who wristed a shot over the out-stretched glove of Ferhi.

San Diego had a couple grade-A chances in the second period to regain the lead, but couldn't quite find the back of the net. Lynch had an excellent chance five minutes into the frame, but his shot from just outside the crease clanked off the cross bar. Then Sylvain Deschatelets and Brain Gornick had a clear-cut two-on-one break just before the halfway mark of the period. After Deschatelets threw a shot on the net, it rebounded near a wide-open Gornick. Michaud was well out of position, but the Gulls' winger couldn't get a handle on the loose puck.

The Ice Dogs had a few chances as well and capitalized on one of them, as Marco Rosa's power-play goal at 11:07 gave Long Beach a 2-1 lead. Steve Villeneuve grabbed a pass at the left point from Chris Kenady and fired a shot that Ferhi steered aside. Rosa, however, found the puck off the boards, and banged it in for his eighth marker of the year.

Lynch got revenge from his earlier post-shot, tying the game 1:41 into the third period. Darren Clark won an end zone faceoff back to Nikita Korovkin, whose ensuing slapper was saved by Michaud. Lynch pounced on the rebound in the corner, skated to the right wing circle and backhanded home his first of the night.

Killing penalties has been a bug-a-boo for the Gulls lately and they got burned for the second time in the game at 9:43 of the third. But this time, the Blue and Orange were a bit unlucky. Matt Shasby chased down a loose puck inside the San Diego zone, curled around and tried sending a centering pass across the crease. Fortunately for the Ice Dogs the pass never went all the way through, as a back-checking Garrow inadvertently redirected it into the net.

The Gulls evened things up again at 15:16 with a power-play goal of their own. Lynch was the beneficiary again, netting his second of the game – fourth of the season. It came on another rebound as Michaud handled Garrow's initial shot. It wasn't handled well enough, however, as Lynch picked up the rebound and buried the equalizer.

Nothing was settled in the rest of regulation and overtime, so the game headed to a shootout. In the extra frame, San Diego received tallies from Deschatelets in the fourth round and Brown in the fifth and final round. Long Beach's lone shootout goal game in the fourth round from Cardarelli...

Notes: The Gulls are now unbeaten in 24 of their last 25 head-to-head games against the Ice Dogs (23-1-1)... They are 10-2-1 overall on home ice and 1-5-1 on the road... San Diego has outscored its opponents 54-25 in its 11 wins, but has been outscored 31-13 in its nine losses (which includes an overtime and shootout loss)... Max Birbraer had his six-game point streak snapped. He had 13 points during that span (6g, 7a)... Sean O'Connor had his five-game point streak snapped. He had 11 points (7g, 4a) in that span... The Gulls were 11-7-2 through 20 games last season... Evgueni Nourislamov was recalled to the American Hockey League's Syracuse Crunch... Mathieu Chouinard remains with the AHL's Cincinnati Mighty Ducks... Sean Murphy, recovering from a fractured knuckle, is expected to be back in the lineup shortly after Christmas...

San Diego now embarks on a six-game road trip, which starts with a three-game series against the Victoria Salmon Kings. The Gulls and Salmon Kings meet Friday, Saturday and Monday at Bear Mountain Arena, with all games beginning at 7 p.m. The Gulls will then play in Las Vegas Dec. 26 before ending the 2004 calendar year with two games in Alaska.

All games can be heard live on KLSD 1360AM and www.sandiegogulls.com with Chris Ello calling the play-by-play. All home games and many road games can be viewed on the Gulls' web site, courtesy of B2 Networks. Click the B2 Networks link on the home page for a list of the upcoming telecasted games. To view pictures from this season, visit www.sdgullsphotos.com and www.zerodogentertainment.com.

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