Rally Pushes Gulls past Stockton, 4-2
February 29, 2020 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release
The Gulls scored three unanswered goals in a 4-2 comeback win tonight against the Stockton Heat at Stockton Arena. San Diego has won four of the last five games (4-1-0-0) and recorded points in six of its last seven games (5-1-1-0). San Diego has also picked up points in 13 of their last 15 games (10-2-3-0) and 18 of 21 games (15-3-3-0).
San Diego has now earned points in five straight games against Stockton (4-0-1-0) and improved to 7-2-2-0 the last 11 road contests overall.
Chris Mueller recorded his first multi-point game for San Diego this season with a goal and assist (1-1=2). Mueller has 18 goals on the season and 2-1=3 points his last three contests.
Max Comtois registered his third multi-point effort his last six games with a goal and assist (1-1=2). Comtois has points in six of his last seven games (7-3=10) and 8-10=18 points his last 19 games.
Isac Lundestrom collected his third two-assist game of the campaign to push his point total to four his last four games (1-3=4) and 3-7=10 his last 14 games.
Josh Mahura scored his fourth goal at 18:36 of the first period, marking his fourth point the last five games (1-3=4). Blake Pietila recorded the primary assist, also his fourth point the last five games (2-2=4). He also has 5-5=10 points his last 12 contests.
Sam Carrick scored pushed his point streak to five games (2-4=6), his fourth point streak this season of five games or more. He has 13-13=26 points his last 24 games and 21-18=39 points his last 37 contests.
Alex Broadhurst scored his first power-play goal of the season at 6:45 of the second period, his ninth goal of 2019-20. He has picked up points in six of his last seven games (3-5=8) and 3-6=9 points his last eight contests.
Anthony Stolarz stopped 24-of-26 shots to win his 21st game, tying a single-season career high (also 2015-16 with Lehigh Valley) and now second among all AHL goaltenders. He improved to 11-2-2 his last 15 starts with a 2.32 GAA and .932 SV%, He also improved to 6-2-2 his last 10 road starts with a 2.19 GAA and .934 SV%.
San Diego will continue its seven-game road trip tomorrow afternoon against the San Jose Barracuda at SAP Center (1:15 p.m.).
POSTGAME QUOTES
San Diego Gulls
Josh Mahura
On his goal
Sammy [Sam Carrick] made a nice play in the zone and Pie [Blake Pietila] got a good bounce. I was just trying to get a lane there for Pie to hit me. I'm lucky enough he got to my stick. I didn't really have to do much after that, it kind of just deflected off so it was a good goal to get us going.
On the win
I definitely felt that there was a lot of special teams in this game, so I think we were just sticking to it, trying to create our chances and limit theirs. Just trying not to play in our own zone as much as we could.
On the defensive effort in the third period
Just staying calm. When you're up goals, sometimes you're just chipping it out of your zone and giving the puck back to them. We just wanted to continue making plays and keep the puck on our sticks. That's obviously the best way to defend any team, when you have the puck. That was our main goal.
On faceoffs
Our centermen did a great job with clean wins which makes it easy on us defensemen, especially in the defensive zone. Those are arguably the most important draws for us. It makes it a lot easier to break the puck out quick. Offensively, our wingers were coming in quick to help and bump it back to us so it definitely made it a lot easier on us.
Head Coach Kevin Dineen
On the game
Stockton's No. 1 on the penalty so early on we had some opportunities but we couldn't score on a four-minute advantage, but we made up for it in the second period so good on us to do that. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the third we give one up shorthanded, so we've plenty on our side, as far as shorty's tonight you always hate to see them against you. Special teams was a big part of our game tonight.
On Anthony Stolarz
Stoli [Anthony Stolarz], I don't think he was great last game in (Tucson) and he'll be the first t admit it. You always have decisions to make because Kevin (Boyle) has played some solid hockey for us, but he's the kind of guy you know is going to bounce back. Certainly that was a great bounce-back effort, we were very solid in net.
On crucial faceoffs
We mentioned it twice in between periods. When you end up with the puck you end up controlling the play. That was certainly a strength of ours so good on our centermen because their percentages are very high and I thought we responded very well.
On the amount of special teams tonight
That's part of the learning experience for a young player. There are times that that's going to happen. If you're not on special teams, you have to stay engaged in the game, whether that's mentally where you're watching or you get up and give your legs a squeeze. I thought our guys did a good job of that some guys that sat on the bench for quite a while but then they bounced right out there and had some good shifts.
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