AHL San Diego Gulls

Gulls Win 5-2 Victory Over Admirals

Published on December 7, 2023 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls earned the second win of its five-game road trip on Wednesday night, a 5-2 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. San Diego has now earned standings points in three of its last four games (2-1-1-0).

Andrew Agozzino matched his season-high in points in a single game with 1-2=3 points, moving him into a tie for the team lead in points (4-13=17). Agozzino has scored all four of his goals this season away from Pechanga Arena San Diego.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal at 7:59 in the first, his fourth goal of the season, and picked up his 12th assist. He now leads all American Hockey League blueliners with three power-play goals and co-leads AHL rookie defensemen in power-play points (3-5=8).

Glenn Gawdin scored his second goal in as many games and fifth overall at 19:18 in the first. He also earned an assist, marking his first multi-point effort of the season (1-1=2).

Ben King netted his seventh goal (PPG) at 8:42 in the second. He ranks second among Gulls skaters in goals.

Nikita Nesterenko deposited one into an empty net for his fourth goal of the season at 18:20 in the third. He has tallied 2-4=6 points in his last four games.

Chase De Leo recorded his fourth assist and sixth point (2-4=6) in five games. He now sits two assists shy (88) of tying Kalle Kossila (90) for third-most assists in Gulls AHL history.

Josh Lopina earned his fourth assist of the campaign, setting a new AHL single-season career high.

Drew Helleson tallied two assists (0-2=2), his second multi-assist effort in four games. He has four assists (0-4=4) in that span.

Trevor Carrick notched his team-leading 14th assist of the season, his second in as many games.

Tomas Suchanek stopped 32-of-34 shots to earn the second victory of his AHL career. He has helped San Diego earn standings points in each of his first three AHL starts (2-0-1).

The San Diego Gulls continue their five-game road trip on Friday, Dec. 8 against the Rockford IceHogs at BMO Center (5 p.m. PST; TV: AHLTV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).

POSTGAME QUOTES

SAN DIEGO GULLS

Center Andrew Agozzino

On tonight's win over Milwaukee:

I think we were well prepared for the game. I think we knew that in order to have a great road trip here we needed to get this one before going to Rockford. The power play was big to help us early on. I think we kind of fed off that.

On his play on the road:

Kind of the way it's ended up so far, but, yeah, I'll be happy to get the first (goal) at Pechanga Arena for sure.

On the power play:

I think we talked about face offs being important and getting shots to the net early. I think we did both that way. I think we won every face off on the power play and we shot the puck quite a bit. Good shooting mentality, so that kind of helped us.

On getting guys in front of the net:

I mean shooting without a body in the front of the net, we're not going to be too successful. So, I think it was a really good five-man effort for both units on the power play tonight.

On the play of Tomas Suchanek:

Every game he's played, he's not just giving us a chance to win but he's won two of them with some big saves at big moments for us. I think in the first period he made a couple of big saves that if he's not there for us, it might be a different game. So, yeah, he's been great for us.

On what the team needs to continue having success on the road trip:

I think having that same mentality of coming in and attacking the game, not dip our toe in the water and kind of see what happens. Just go out and try to strike first and carry the play.

Assistant Coach Kris Sparre

On tonight's win over Milwaukee:

I think we put a focus on getting in on the forecheck early. We feel like our team when we're hunting, you know, we're up on the forecheck, we can create a lot of havoc. And we felt like we did a good job of that early in the game. We were able to establish some offensive zone time from it. And yeah, it kind of stemmed and built from there.

On the three-goal first period:

It was nice to get rewarded. You know, we were bringing a lot of volume to that. I thought our traffic at the net front was really good tonight. We knew that they had a great goaltender, and the challenge was we wanted to get in front of them and make it really hard on him. And we did that, and we were awarded early with some goals.

On the power play:

It starts with face offs. We won a lot of face offs on the power play tonight and when you can start with the puck on the power play, your percentages go up and then that specific power play unit looked really good early in the game. Zelly's (Gulls defenseman Olen Zellweger) got a great shot for the point and if we can have him taking that with a great screen it looks good. And then you know, I thought Trevor's (Gulls defenseman Trevor Carrick) unit with Trace (Gulls left wing Brayden Tracey) and (Gulls right wing Jacob) Perreault, they looked dangerous as well. They weren't rewarded tonight but they will if they continue to look like that.

On the third period:

We had great poise in the third period. You know, it's a weird game sometimes. Shots that shouldn't go in go in and I thought Tomas (Gulls goaltender Tomas Suchanek) was outstanding tonight. They score a couple goals bang, bang, and it's like we responded well. Our bench was calm, it was composed, and we were able to ride into that victory with really no hesitation.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 7, 2023


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