AHL San Diego Gulls

Gulls Start Regular Season With Win Over Reign

Published on October 14, 2023 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls opened the 2023-24 regular season with a 4-1 victory over the Ontario Reign Friday night at Toyota Arena. San Diego is now 6-3-0-0 in season-opening contests.

Pavol Regenda posted 2-0=2 points, recording the second two-goal game of his American Hockey League career (last: Dec. 23, 2022 @ TUC). He scored San Diego's first goal of the season, a power-play tally at 11:20 of the first period. He later netted his second of the game 48 seconds into the third frame, a shorthanded goal. It marks the first shorthanded goal of his AHL career.

Alex Stalock stopped 40-of-41 shots to earn the win, collecting the most saves by a Gulls goaltender in a season opener. At 36 years, two months and six days, he also became the oldest player to appear in a game for the Gulls.

Olen Zellweger recorded two assists in his regular-season AHL debut, the first two regular-season helpers of his pro career.

Jacob Perreault and Glenn Gawdin (ENG) also scored for San Diego, each tallying their first goals of the season in the win.

Sasha Pastujov tallied his first-career AHL point and assist on Regenda's first goal of the game.

Andrew Agozzino, Trevor Carrick and Colton White also picked up assists in the win.

San Diego tallied went 1-for-2 on the power play tonight while holding Ontario off the scoresheet on the penalty kill, going 6-for-6 while shorthanded.

The Gulls and the Reign finish their weekend set on Sunday, Oct. 15 at 3 p.m. PT in Ontario. The Southern California rivals face each other in three straight games to open the 2023-24 regular season, including San Diego's Home Opener presented by Cal Coast Credit Union on Friday, Oct. 20 at Pechanga Arena San Diego.

POSTGAME QUOTES

SAN DIEGO GULLS

Left winger Pavol Regenda

On the win over Ontario:

I mean, I feel like today was a really good game overall, from (the) first line to the fourth. We did some mistakes, starting with me. I did, really, some bad passes and turnovers which (I) shouldn't do during the game. But I think we played what the coaches want - we played tough, we played heavy. You can see, 4-1 against a really good team like the Reign is really good. We have to continue with that and hopefully we're going to have another game (like that) again in two days.

On the play of Alex Stalock:

I'm always really happy at the bench and always laughing because he's a really good goalie. He makes really good plays with the stick. I'm saying, sometimes he makes better plays than we do as players, so he's good at that, and he was really good tonight. That's why we won, because he brought really good saves. Really happy that he's here.

On scoring two net-front goals

That's kind of my office. I didn't do it as much during camp and I got told that I should improve that and get better. Of course I want to be there...that's my job. I'm a heavy guy. I have to play around the net. I'm never going to score goals like [Anaheim Ducks forward Trevor] Zegras.

On the team's play tonight

We did really smart team plays. We put the puck behind. We played heavy. We played good. We had good sticks. We have the right penalty kill (PK). We had good power plays. That was the thing. We had really good meetings with our head coach and we transferred that to the game. We have to continue with that and play for the team and for each other and we can beat anyone.

Head Coach Matt McIlvane

On earning his first AHL win as a coach:

Just happy for the guys. You know that Ontario gave us a pretty big gap to fill from five days ago to now. Obviously, getting the guys into the lineup, that helps. Our special teams were great today. You know, get on the board with the power play and then getting the shorthand goal with a fortunate bounce. I thought our team showed good character, strong defense, high competitiveness, and I think we got a lot better this week.

On the performance of San Diego's special teams:

We have a lot of respect for them. You know, we know how high-end their skill is, and it's just a matter of trying to make them somehow a little bit uncomfortable. I thought, you know, the guys were prepared, and they executed the game plan.

On the play of goaltender Alex Stalock:

I think calm is the right word. I think Alex just invoked calm in our team. I think that, you know, even the way that he moved the puck and played it. You know, I think that we're really fortunate to have two great goalies and Alex was really sharp tonight.

On how the team applied the lessons from training camp:

I mean, we're not sitting here looking at this like we played the world's greatest hockey game. We know that we've got a lot of room to improve, and that's the exciting part. However, you know, the big step that we took this week was noticeable. And, you know, we're just staying on that mission to keep getting better.

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American Hockey League Stories from October 14, 2023


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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