Gulls get off to rocky start on long road trip

January 31, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


SAN DIEGO –– The San Diego Gulls are in the midst of a seven-game road trip... So it's no coincidence that this is probably their toughest stretch of the entire season... It's been somewhat of a rocky start for head coach Martin St. Amour so far, as his troops have dropped two of the first three on the eastern trek.

San Diego began the journey Friday in Peoria, where they got dominated and shutout. The Gulls rebounded with a tight win Saturday in Dayton before falling Sunday afternoon in Toledo. As of Monday, the Blue and Orange sit in a fourth-place tie in the West Division with the Fresno Falcons, both with 48 points apiece. San Diego, however, has two games in hand on Fresno and has played fewer games than all contending teams in the division.

WEEK IN REVIEW:

Jan. 28 @ Peoria: It was just a flat-out dominating performance by the Rivermen, who out-shot the Gulls 51-12 and out-scored them 3-0. The only reason it wasn't more than a 3-0 loss for San Diego was because of the stellar goaltending by both Mathieu Chouinard and Eddy Ferhi. Chouinard stopped 35 of 36 shots but had to be taken out of the game early in the third period due to dehydration. Ferhi entered in relief and went on to make 13 saves.

Jan. 29 @ Dayton: Ferhi was sharp again, stopping 26 of 27 shots, en route to San Diego's 2-1 win in its first-ever meeting with the Bombers. Dayton opened the scoring 7:54 into the first period, but Ferhi was perfect the rest of the way. Mike Garrow and Chris Lynch netted back-to-back goals in the second period and that was it. Dayton netminder Michael Ayers had 25 saves, but suffered the hard-luck loss.

Jan. 30 @ Toledo: Maris Ziedins notched a goal and two assists, leading the red-hot Storm to a 5-2 victory against the Gulls in their first-ever ECHL match-up. Toledo's Scooter Smith and P.J. Martin each recorded a goal and an assist, while Sam Paolini chipped in with two helpers. Goaltender Scott Fankhouser made 21 saves en route to his 17th victory of the season. The Storm have now won four straight and are 10-2-1 in their last 13 games.

PLAYER NOTES: Sylvain Deschatelets' eight-game point streak ended Friday in Peoria... Ferhi has won four of his last five decisions... Andrew Canzanello, currently with the American Hockey League's Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, had an assist and was a +3 at Wednesday's All-Star Game... Cory Pecker was assigned to the Gulls from Cincinnati on Saturday... Chouinard, Max Birbraer and Jonathon Shockey were all activated from the injured list... Trevor Koenig (elbow tendonitis) and Evgueni Nourislamov (broken finger) were both placed on injured reserve... Sean Murphy (broken thumb) and Wes Rypien (sprained knee) remain on the injured list...

TEAM NOTES: The Gulls are now 3-4-0 against teams outside of their division. They have six games remaining this season against interdivision teams... San Diego is now 8-10-2 overall on the road... The Gulls have the seventh-best offense in the ECHL, averaging 3.15 goals per game. They, however, have only scored 47 goals in 20 road games this season (2.35 per game)... San Diego has the best home power-play percentage (24.2), but rank 22nd with the man advantage on the road (12.9)...

UPCOMING GAMES: The Gulls and Storm meet again Wednesday at the Toledo Sports Arena, with game-time scheduled for 4 p.m. (PST).* San Diego will then play Friday in Wheeling and Saturday in Johnstown before closing the trek Sunday, Feb. 6 back in Wheeling.

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.

*NOTE: WEDNESDAY'S GAME IN TOLEDO AND FRIDAY'S GAME IN WHEELING WILL BE TAPE-DELAYED, BOTH AIRING AT 7 P.M. (PST) ON KLSD. ALL THREE GAMES NEXT WEEKEND CAN BE VIEWED LIVE VIA B2 NETWORKS.



ECHL Stories from January 31, 2005


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