Gulls' Success Continues against San Jose
Published on February 17, 2022 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release
The San Diego Gulls downed the San Jose Barracuda 5-1 Wednesday night at SAP Center to improve to 3-1-0-0 in their first four contests of the second half of the regular season (Games 35-68). San Diego has now won 10 of their last 11 matchups with San Jose and have earned standings points in 17 of the last 20 meetings between the clubs dating back to Jan. 31, 2020 (16-3-1-0).
Lucas Elvenes earned his first career multi-goal game (2-0=2) scoring his fifth and sixth goals of the campaign.
Brent Gates Jr. established a new career high for goals in a season with his fifth tally of the year 3:17 into the first period to give him goals in consecutive games (3-0=3).
Hunter Drew and Greg Printz scored goals to mark tallies in each of their last two contests (2-0=2). Printz has registered 4-3=7 points over his last seven games.
Brogan Rafferty collected his third multi-assist effort of the season with 0-2=2 points and now has points in three of his last four games (1-4=5).
Nikolas Brouillard registered an assist to maintain his scoring lead among Gulls defensemen with 8-14=22 points on the year. Brouillard has collected points in three of his last four games (2-2=4) and has earned 4-2=6 points in his last eight contests.
Axel Andersson, Trevor Carrick, Jacob Larsson, Vinni Lettieri, Brogan Rafferty and Brayden Tracey each earned assists. Carrick and Larsson have helpers in back-to-back games, while Lettieri extended his assist streak into a career-high third game (1-4=5).
Lukas Dostal stopped 24-of-25 shots to earn his ninth victory of the season and move into a tie with Anthony Stolarz (24) for second on the Gulls all-time goaltender wins list. Dostal has allowed two or fewer goals in four of his last six outings while posting a 4-1-0 record with a 1.87 goals against average and a .944 save percentage.
The Gulls begin a weekend home-and-home series with the Ontario Reign beginning Saturday, Feb. 19 at Pechanga Arena San Diego (7 p.m. PT).
POSTGAME QUOTES
San Diego Gulls
Head Coach Joel Bouchard
On the team's execution:
It was much better. There's always room for improvement. If you ask a coach "what can get better," you're always going to find something. We didn't play much the last couple weeks. It was our (second) game in 11 or 12 days, so yeah, I did think the execution was higher tonight than it has been, which is nice. And you see the result with the goals. I also liked that in the second period, I challenged the players to step up one gear and they did. I'm very happy about that. At one point I think we were playing decent, but we were a little nonchalant in some of the plays and I thought that second period the guys stepped up, which is nice.
On the amount of penalties:
Well, it was an old American league game with a lot of emotion. It was chippy out there, it was one of those games, but I liked how the guys sticked together. At one point you're in the fight and I'm glad that the guys stayed in the fight. I don't think it was out of hand. I just think it was one of those chippy games in the American league with a lot of emotion. And obviously, you know, penalties were on both sides and I think the referees did a great job. It was what it was. I thought we held our own.
On building momentum heading into the weekend:
We're going to get challenged against everybody until the end of the year. So, it's going to happen. The focus is on us a lot right now. So, I'm already thinking like, "okay, what could we learn from that game tonight" and stuff like that. I feel we're taking strides, but like everything else, if you stop moving your legs your strides are going to go away. I'm intrigued and interested how far can we bring this group and I'm going to push them to make sure. They're pushing each other which is fun. I think you're bang on in execution, that was a lot better tonight. It's something we've been talking about, so let's see how we do against Ontario. It's going to be a good challenge this weekend for sure.
On what the team can learn from tonight's execution:
I think our pressure was higher in the second period. We sustained the pressure. We stayed in the zone longer. We weren't one and done, meaning that it wasn't a back-and-forth period for a long period. We stayed in the o-zone. Obviously, if you stay in the o-zone you have more chances of scoring. We won some battles and executed some play and scored those goals.
Lucas Elvenes
On earning the first multi-goal game of his AHL career:
No, it felt good. Of course, I was thinking about that. It was my first multi-goal game. So, it's fun to score two goals in a game, huge win too. Good for the boys, good for coming into this week with two against Ontario. So, looking forward to that.
On what changed from the first to the second period:
We came out hard. Of course, we forechecked really good today, created a lot of scoring chances from the forecheck too. And I think we were good in the d-zone. There was not too many odd man rushes, 3-on-2s and that stuff, so we did a good job there.
On the game's chippy atmosphere:
No, you just got to focus, you got to stick to your system. When stuff like that happens, it's always happens like 3-on-2s and that stuff so we've got to be careful with what we're doing. Do the right stuff, get it down deep and all that stuff, the easy stuff. We did that today.
On if its difficult to settle into a game dominated by special teams:
No, it's pretty easy, actually because it doesn't matter where you are, you'll always get some ice time, especially today. So, you can feel the puck, you get used to it, you have confidence, so it's not that hard. You just got to stay ready.
On what this win does for the team's momentum moving forward:
Yes, exactly as you said keep rolling. Playing a good team this weekend; we know how they are. It's going to be two tough games, but we have this game in the bag. We have confidence now, so we just got to keep it up.
American Hockey League Stories from February 17, 2022
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- Canucks Pick up Fifth Consecutive Win with Road Victory over Bakersfield - Abbotsford Canucks
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