AHL San Diego Gulls

Gulls Downed by Wild, 2-1

Published on January 14, 2024 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls fell in overtime to the Iowa Wild 2-1 Saturday night at Pechanga Arena San Diego. The Gulls earned five of six possible points during their three-game homestand. San Diego's overall record now stands at 11-16-6-0.

Glenn Gawdin netted a shorthanded goal to open the scoring at 6:06 in the third, his 10th of the season. He now has points in three straight games (2-1=3).

Calle Clang stopped 35-of-37 shots.

The San Diego Gulls will head to Abbotsford for back-to-back contests against the Canucks beginning on Saturday, Jan. 20 (7 p.m. PST; TV: AHLTV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).

POSTGAME QUOTES

SAN DIEGO GULLS

Center Glenn Gawdin

On tonight's loss to Iowa:

Hard-fought for sure. It stings to give that one up at the end there. I thought we had chances to win. Obviously, the first two periods being 0-0, it was just one of those nights, and it stings.

On his shorthanded goal:

I got the puck in the defensive zone and saw that I had room. (Gulls forward Judd Caulfield) made a great effort to join with me. The defensemen had to respect it and kind of took him away, so I thought the shot was the best idea.

On the penalty kill:

It was huge. I thought our penalty kill did a great job this weekend. Last night, we killed for I think 15 minutes of the game, so, when that happens, your kill needs to be good, and obviously we don't want to be killing that much, but the fact that we were able to kill it, it's a good sign for our team.

On the team learned from the homestand:

I think when we play the right way, it's effective and we have success. Obviously, tonight, going into overtime, we'll take the point, but I think this week in general, we played a lot more structurally to our system and I thought that we didn't give up as many chances. I thought we got a lot more chances than we have been. So, I think those little things that we've been talking about, we've got to continue to do.

On the goaltenders' performances:

I thought they played great, both of them. (Gulls goaltender Calle Clang) stood on his head tonight, for sure. They had a lot of grade A's, and the same with (Gulls goaltender Tomas Suchanek) last night. He was a big reason why we won. I think all three of our goalies are pretty strong. We have confidence in whoever is in net.

Head coach Matt McIlvane

On tonight's loss to Iowa:

It was competitive the whole game. I think both teams had a taste in their mouth from the last game that we wanted to prove that we were better and that we could keep going. They wanted a little bit of revenge, and it was gritty the whole time. Often times you feel that in the back-to-back. We had to kill a lot of penalties today, which is something we have to fix, but getting through the kills was good. In the end falling a little short, but we've got five out of six points since we've been back here this week.

On taking penalties:

It's a variety [of reasons]. You got to look at each one in a unique way. Bottom line is that maybe the competitive nature gets the best of us at times. We're learning how to stay composed through competitive play and tactically avoiding it. That's really all we can do.

On the team's improvement:

If you look at it really objectively, we lost 13 games in a row, and since that time, we're about a .500 team. From a wins and loss perspective, the change is real. It's tangible. From the rest of this side, being a .500 team isn't something that we're striving for either. We want to win at a much higher rate, and we see growth happening. We see it happening from our youth. We see it happening from the way that our team's coming together. We see our five-on-five play on the ice. There's growth happening in every direction.

On Glenn Gawdin:

I thought Glenn was a leader for us today. He usually is and he's a pretty competitive player for us. It was a big goal. We spent a lot of time shorthanded, so at least we could find a way to get on the board there.

On what the team will work on before heading to Abbotsford:

I think the big thing is let's use our week. We've got an opportunity here to really invest in our development and our growth as individuals and as a team. As we switch gears to Abbotsford next weekend, let's start with the discipline part. We can't be putting ourselves shorthanded this many times and expect results every game. Really from there, I thought that our puck play can keep improving, but I really like the competitiveness of our team over this weekend.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 14, 2024


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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