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AHL San Diego Gulls

Power Play Leads Gulls over Henderson, 4-1

April 24, 2021 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls picked up their first win against the Henderson Silver Knights by the score of 4-1 at FivePoint Arena. The Gulls scored two goals on the man advantage tonight to mark eight power-play goals over the last seven games (8-23, 34.8%). The Gulls earned their 22nd win of the season and moved into a tie for the league lead in wins (22), while adding to their AHL lead in goal scoring (122).

Benoit-Olivier Groulx scored two goals to mark his 9th and 10th goals of the season and his first career AHL multi-goal game (2-0=2). Groulx ranks tied for third in points (10-11=21) and goals among AHL rookies.

Andrew Agozzino opened the scoring on the power play 8:39 into the game and added two assists to mark his fourth multi-point game of the season (1-2=3). Agozzino has scored three power-play goals over his last nine games and co-leads the AHL with six on the season.

Vinni Lettieri scored the game-winning goal on the power-play at 17:58 of the first period to mark goals in consecutive games.

Chase De Leo picked up an assist on the man advantage to take the league lead in power-play points (6-6=12).

Trevor Zegras picked up two power-play assists to mark his second consecutive game with multiple points. Since being reassigned to the Gulls on Apr. 5, Zegras is tied for the lead in points among AHL rookies with 5-6=11 points in eight games.

Simon Benoit, Nikolas Brouillard and Trevor Carrick each picked up an assist. Brouillard has assists in three consecutive games (0-3=3) to tie his career-high assist streak.

Lukas Dostal stopped 23-of-24 shots to extend his Gulls rookie record winning streak to seven games (7-0-0). Among rookie goaltenders Dostal ranks second in wins (12), third in save percentage (.918), and fifth in goals against average (2.94).

The Gulls will conclude their back-to-back weekend set against the Henderson Silver Knights tomorrow, Apr. 25 (5 p.m.) at FivePoint Arena.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Benoit-Olivier Groulx

On the win

[Henderson] has a really good team. They've shown that all season long. We battled a lot. For myself, it's just a confidence. I'm playing with good players and coach is putting me in a really good position throughout the season to build my confidence. I think it's showing right now.

On the back-to-back

It's going to be a really quick one tomorrow. We're looking forward to it. We like playing those games, especially when there is a little bit of bad blood. We're looking forward to it and we'll start getting ready right now.

On team defense

[Lukas Dostal] has been good all year long. He's been unreal for us and he's won some games for us. Our defensemen are doing their job perfectly. We get a lot of momentum when we're getting those blocked shots. It's really helping our goalie too, especially when we're tired and they're buzzing a bit in our zone. Every time we can block one, we'll take it.

Lukas Dostal

On the win

It was a great game. The guys had great defensive play. They helped me a lot and blocked a lot of shots. It was a great game and I'm happy how it went.

On the team blocking shots

It's huge for the team and also for me. Big win for us today and I'm so glad how the guys played tonight. It was a big win for us.

On tomorrow's game

It's back-to-back games so we're going to try to recover and get ready for tomorrow and show our best.

On the physical play between the teams

There's going to be lots of battles for sure. Henderson wants to set the tone for tomorrow so we expect lots of battles so it's going to be a big game tomorrow.

Head Coach Kevin Dineen

On the win

[Henderson] is well-coached. They're disciplined. They get a lot of scoring throughout their lineup. All the games so far have been tight. Our special teams were good tonight. Our power play got us off to a good start. We had to kill a lot in the second period and got that done. Special teams was a difference. I just liked the tempo of our game, I thought we kept on coming at them. We put the puck into place. We had a lot of support, meaning the guy with the puck on his stick had options to move it. When you have that, it simplifies the game.

On protecting the lead

We wanted to make sure the game was decided on the ice, the referees didn't play into it. The game is easy when you keep it in front of you. I think that was the point. You have the puck, you're seeing what's in front of you and you just keep things simple. I thought we did a good job of going north with the puck, putting it in their end.

On the physicality

When we play well, we have a physical aspect to our game. [Simon Benoit] is a guy who leads us in that category but right throughout our lineup, our thought process was to get in on pucks. We were putting it in a place where when the puck gets stuck on the boards, the defense on the opponents feels a lot of stress. Then we can go in and get our licks on them. I thought we did a good job in that area.

On Lukas Dostal

He got off to a great start this year and then we had a team lull. He's back in his wheelhouse and he's making everything look easy. When you have that, it puts a lot of confidence in the guys in front of him. Very good showing for Dostal.

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