AHL San Diego Gulls

Gulls Edge San Antonio, 5-4

Published on February 24, 2019 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The Gulls concluded a two-game homestand with a 5-4 win over the San Antonio Rampage. San Diego has scored 20 goals the last four games and continues to lead the AHL in goals-per game (3.67) while the 185 goals this season (excluding shootout goals) is the most through 51 games in club history.

The Gulls also have eight wins their last 12 games (8-3-1-0) and in 18 of their last 24 (18-5-2-0). San Diego has also earned points in 25 of the last 29 games overall (21-5-2-2). On home ice, San Diego has won 10 of their last 12 games and have matched the best start in club history on home ice through 25 games, posting a 16-7-1-1 record and 34 points (also 16-7-1-1 in 2016-17).

Kevin Roy scored his first goal of the season at 15:47 of the second period. Roy later tallied an assist for his second multi-point game of the season and now has 1-3=4 points in four games in 2018-19. Simon Benoit scored 15 seconds later to mark his second goal of the season and first in 35 games. Kiefer Sherwood earned the lone assist on the Benoit goal, his sixth point in as many games (2-4=6).

Sam Carrick scored for the fourth straight game, his team-leading 27th goal. His four-game goal streak (5-1=6) is now one shy of his career high set from Dec. 15-27 (6-2=8). Carrick has scored 10-9=19 points his last 18 games in addition to 21-16=37 his last 33 games overall. Ben Street and Patrick Eaves each earned assists on Carrick's goal.

Adam Cracknell scored his 12th goal of the season at 10:45 of the third period. Cracknell now has a three-game point streak (2-3=5), and has scored eight goals and 15 points (8-7=15) his last 10 games. Roy recorded the primary assist, while Jacob Larsson earned an assist for the second straight game on the goal.

Justin Kloos scored an empty-net goal to push his point streak to five games (1-5=6) with his 13th goal of the campaign. Chase De Leo tallied the lone assist, setting a new single-season career high for points to surpass the 40 he scored as a rookie in 2015-16 with Manitoba.

Jeff Glass won his 10th game of the season after stopping 18 shots in his eighth consecutive start.

Tonight's game was a sellout, 12,920. San Diego continues to lead the AHL in attendance (8,904 avg.) this season.

The Gulls will visit the Stockton Heat for a back-to-back matchup at Stockton Arena on Friday, Mar. 1 (7 p.m.) and Saturday, Mar. 2 (6 p.m.).

POSTGAME QUOTES

San Diego Gulls

Kevin Roy

On his return to the lineup

Ever since I've been back, I've been trying to help this team. They've been rolling so I'm just trying to do what I'm good at to help this team win moving forward.

On the balanced scoring

There's four great lines that can play any night. Whoever is up or down, everyone can play and everyone is chipping in, making this team win. We work hard every day and it shows when we get out there.

On his play

It was a long time before coming back, but right when I jumped in, I felt comfortable. I just have to do what I'm good at and keep it simple, don't try to do too much. With a great team like this, I just have to do what I'm good at and help the team win.

On erasing a 2-0 deficit

It shows the resiliency we have. It doesn't matter if we're up or down 2-0, we play the same way. We just knew it was going to turn around and we were going to get our chances and we just needed to take care of those, and we did. We were able to come back and get a big win.

On the sellout crowd

The support in San Diego is amazing. On a weekend game like that, you get 12,000 fans backing us up, even when we were down 2-0. They went crazy when it went 2-2. It just gives us a lot of energy on the bench and a lot of energy as team.

Head Coach Dallas Eakins

On the team's scoring depth

I think that's what we should expect going forward. We've tried to even out our scoring throughout our lines. Tonight we tightened it up a little but when we got behind, but it's always good to see different names on the sheet.

On erasing a 2-0 deficit

We didn't really have to say anything on the bench. The players are beating me to it now, which is a great, great sign. They weren't rattled at all and we just stuck with our initial game plan.

On Jeff Glass

He made (a save) there in the third and I think we would've gone down two goals and that might have been game over. He was able to recover and get back across. Just an incredible save to keep us in the game.

On Kevin Roy

It was a big goal for him. He's a guy that wants to produce and he's going to really grade his game a lot of the time off of that. You could see his reaction when he scored, it was a massive relief. In all my years of coaching, there have been very few players who have seemed that dedicated to their fitness level and how they're going to conduct themselves away from the rink while they've been hurt like that. He's come back in excellent shape and it's great to see him have success.

On the sellout crowd

It is electric down there. It's so loud down on the bench. We go into a lot of buildings, if we get up 2-0 on the other team, their fans start lighting up their players, they're booing them. The opposite happens here. When we get down a couple, they get louder and push us along. There is such a great effect on our players when that happens. It puts them in a positive frame of mind. They feed off of it. I think our fans take a lot of credit for the comeback tonight.

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American Hockey League Stories from February 24, 2019


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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