Sports stats



AHL San Diego Gulls

San Diego Blanked by San Jose

November 17, 2022 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls went scoreless tonight in San Jose, falling 3-0 to the rival Barracuda in the team's first-ever game at Tech CU Arena. The loss drops San Diego's overall record to 5-9-0-0 and 4-5-0-0 on the road.

Tonight marked the return of Gulls head coach Roy Sommer to San Jose. Before joining San Diego as its head coach on July 12, 2022, Sommer spent 26 consecutive seasons as a coach in the San Jose Sharks organization. In his time with the club, Sommer became the American Hockey League's all-time winningest coach (809) and led the league in games coached (1,745).

Lukas Dostal stopped 39-of-42 shots in the loss, maintaining an impressive 2.00 goals against average and a .945 save percentage over his last seven games. The netminder kept San Jose scoreless through the first period, marking the fifth time in his last six games and the eighth time in his 12 starts this season where he did not allow a goal in the first frame.

San Diego killed all four of San Jose's power-play opportunities, marking the fifth consecutive road game the Gulls were perfect on the penalty kill (24-for-24). Over their last nine games, the Gulls killed 43 of their opponents' 45 opportunities on the man-advantage (95.6%). At the conclusion of tonight's game, the Gulls' penalty kill ranks second in the AHL, Western Conference and Pacific Division with an 88.9% overall success rate (56-for-63).

Rocco Grimladi and Nikolas Brouillard led all skaters with three shots each. Grimaldi leads the Gulls in goals and points, while tying for the team lead in assists with 5-10=15 points in 13 games this season. The right wing's 1.15 point-per-game average also tops the Gulls' leaderboard. As of Nov. 16, Brouillard's 4-9=13 points ranked him second in points and tied for third in goals among AHL defensemen. Additionally, the blueliner ranks second in points and assists, as well as tied for second in goals among San Diego skaters.

The Gulls will return to the ice Friday, Nov. 18 to open a back-to-back weekend series with the Grand Rapids Griffins at Pechanga Arena San Diego (7 p.m. PT).

POSTGAME QUOTES

Gulls forward Danny O'Regan

On the loss to San Jose:

They played hard; they had some jump. They won a few more battles than us and I think it's a little bit less about what they did and just kind of what we did. We didn't have it; we weren't skating or winning battles, our execution was just terrible, like passes and stuff like that.

On how the team can make changes before hosting Grand Rapids:

It's definitely something that's in the room. Just to a guy, I mean, just a little bit more focused and, you know, a little more pride with our passes and our d(efensive) zone or o(ffensive) zone. You can put (it) on the list and, you know, everyone individually taking that step and being would help a lot this weekend.

On if it's on the team's leadership to deliver a particular message inside the locker room:

It's definitely something I should, you know, be a leader about, say to the younger guys, At the end of the day, it's definitely everybody individually, but sometimes those guys need a little kick. Yeah, I think that falls on me. I think that could definitely be doing a better job and getting guys up and ready to play. It seems like (we) can't string a couple of good games together. I think that's all kind of between the ears, it's all a mental thing, and just getting up for games.

On the team's success on the penalty kill:

They've been doing a really good job, keeping us in the game. You know, keeping games tight. Dos (Gulls goaltender Lukas Dostal) is a big part of that, and he's been amazing throughout this whole stretch. We just have to, (on) the other side of things, be a lot better.

Gulls assistant coach Jason Clarke

On the loss to San Jose:

I mean, they just outworked us right from the drop of the puck. We won less than, probably, 10% of any one-on-one battles all night long. So, if you don't come to the rink and want to take pride in your job and compete and and, you know, be proud to wear a Gulls sweater, that's exactly what's going to happen.

On changes needed before the weekend series against Grand Rapids:

I don't think there's lots. There's only one thing that needs to be tweaked, and that's just we need to be able to make sure that we get a heartbeat going here. I mean, we played so well against Ontario and, you know, as a staff and as a team, we really thought we took two or three steps forward. Tonight, we just took two or three steps backwards again. That's kind of been the theme is you play one real good game and one real bad game and, you mean, enough is enough. We really have to start clamping down here and start taking a little bit more pride in our job and what we do as a profession. That's the one thing that's got to change for the weekend. We just have to compete.

On the performance of the team's penalty kill:

You win and you win and lose as a team and to me, our PK (penalty kill) was okay tonight. We have a really good goaltender. There were quite a few breakdowns on the penalty kill and your goaltender is going to be your best penalty killer. He was our best player since the season started and he was our best player tonight again, and he was our best player on the PK.

Check out the San Diego Gulls Statistics

• Discuss this story on the American Hockey League message board...

American Hockey League Stories from November 17, 2022


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central