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Kahkonen Blanks Gulls as Iowa Takes 3-0 Decision

February 14, 2020 - American Hockey League (AHL) - San Diego Gulls News Release

San Diego fell 3-0 to the Iowa Wild tonight at Wells Fargo Arena. Wild goaltender Kappo Kahkonen stopped all 34 shots to earn his fifth shutout of the season and Gerald Mayhew scored all three goals, a natural hat trick. Mayhew leads the AHL with 39 goals.

Despite the setback, San Diego has points in seven of their last eight games (5-1-2-0), 12 of their last 14 contests (10-2-2-0) and 16 of their last 21 overall (12-5-3-1). The Gulls are also 4-1-1-0 their last six road contests and 9-5-1-0 the last 15 away from home.

Anthony Stolarz stopped 30-of-31 shots in the setback, ending his five-game win streak. Stolarz is 8-1-1 his last 10 starts with a 2.28 goals-against average and .936 save percentage, stopping 30-or-more shots in nine straight appearances.

San Diego and Iowa will conclude the weekend back-to-back tomorrow at Wells Fargo Arena (4 p.m. PT).

POSTGAME QUOTES

San Diego Gulls

Sam Carrick

On the team's defensive effort

We're frustrated that we lost the game, but I think when we take some time here and really evaluate our game, I think we'll realize that we actually played a pretty good game. Their one goal was a pretty lucky goal. It was kind of a crappy bounce that went off our guy and in. The other two were obviously empty netters. Obviously we want to create some more offense. Any time you get shutout like that, you can't expect a win, so we're going to take our positives from this game and move on to tomorrow night.

On the third period

We stayed out of the box all game which was great. Part of the game plan was to limit their power play. The third period, we did a good job of actually drawing penalties and giving our power play a chance to get a goal. We stuck with it and I thought we controlled the puck for most of the third period. It just didn't go our way tonight, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

On the goaltending battle between Stolarz and Kahkonen

[Stolarz] was great as always and gave us a chance to win, stopping a breakaway in the second period. When I went down and had my chance on a partial breakaway, that was just the way the game went. Both goalies played well and when things are going like that, you know it's just going to be a lucky goal that's going to be the winner. That's what happened tonight and unfortunately it wasn't us.

Head Coach Kevin Dineen

On the game

For us, there's ways that you have to play. We know we're playing a talented team, we limited their chances. We weren't great in the first period, we felt like we had airplane legs there early. We liked the tone and the tempo of the game. I thought both goalies were excellent tonight.

On the power play

Power play, there's a goal that should have counted that didn't. You can debate that as much as you want. A the end of it you're not going to change the refs mind so you have to get ready for the task at hand. Bottom line is our power play didn't get it done when we needed them to.

On turning the page from tonight's game

There's nothing else you can do. All of a sudden there's another game within 24 hours, prepare yourself and make some hard decisions today to get ready for tomorrow.

On facing Iowa tomorrow

We have to make sure that when we have that shot mentality, you have somebody at the net. We felt like we were generating shots as the game wore on. You can get those second and third opportunities when those are there. With a little bit of a fluky goal that they scored against us, just stay with it, keep our composure and play the way you need to on the road to have success.

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