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AHL San Diego Gulls

San Diego Falls to Abbotsford

December 15, 2022 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls fell short of a comeback, losing 5-4 to the Abbotsford Canucks tonight at Pechanga Arena San Diego, bringing their record to 6-19-0-0 overall and 2-11-0-0 at home.

Nikolas Brouillard recorded four assists (0-4=4), setting career highs for assists and points earned in a single game. The blueliner has five helpers in his last two games (0-5=5), ranking tied for first for the team lead in assists and maintaining the scoring lead among Gulls defensemen with 5-15 points.

Rocco Grimaldi posted a three-point game (1-2=3), earning his team-leading 11th goal and two assists on the power play. The right wing also ranks first on the Gulls with 11-13=24 points and leads San Diego with 7-6=13 points on the man advantage.

David Cotton (1-0=1) and Evan Weinger (1-0=1) each notched their first goal in a Gulls sweater, while Justin Kirkland scored on the power play for his fourth tally of the season.

Danny O'Regan earned his 15th assist of the season, tying Brouillard for the assist lead on San Diego. Drew Helleson also added an assist.

Goaltenders Garrett Metcalf and Daniel Mannella both made their Gulls debuts tonight. Metcalf made 36 saves on 38 shots in 52:19 of relief and took the loss, while Mannella stopped 4-of-7 shots in 4:56 minutes of play.

San Diego was perfect on the man advantage tonight, scoring on 2-of-2 power play opportunities.

The Gulls continue their homestand this Friday, Dec. 16 against the Coachella Valley Firebirds at Pechanga Arena San Diego (7 p.m. PST).

POSTGAME QUOTES

San Diego Gulls

Head Coach Roy Sommer

On tonight being the team's best effort during its losing streak

I don't know if I'd say that, but I mean, we finally got some goals. Two on the power play, two 5-on-5. We just keep finding ways to shoot ourselves in the foot. I mean, we go into the third period, and we take like four minors [penalties], put us down on a 5-on-3 again on penalties we deserved. Just a lot of undisciplined (play) right now in some games and it's killing us.

On the message in the locker room after the first period

Yeah, well, I think the big thing was we came out, stuck with it. We got some big saves. Metcalf - he came in there and killed off like a 5-on-3 right off the bat, made some point blankers, kept us in the game. Even the goal they scored on the 5-on-3, we put it in ourselves - wasn't like they got it. He kept us in. It was 4-2 and I wouldn't say their goalie was playing great either - he was kind of fighting it a little bit. We get a big goal by Weinger and make it 4-3, and kind of off to the races, but then again, come in in the third and just, what did we have? 12 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey. Other times we were killing penalties. So, eight minutes that we were in the box. We should have been trying to win a hockey game.

On the power play

Oh, power play looked good; penalty kill was good. We had some big saves, but they were like 1-for-7 or 1-for-8 - something like that. So, special teams was good. We gave up a lot of shots, but a lot of it had to do with the power plays.

Defenseman Nikolas Brouillard

On I this was the team's hardest effort in the past few games

Yeah, for sure. It's tough, like right now we're trying to get our heads above the water and that's for sure best effort and we shot ourselves in the foot. We got so many penalties in the third. So many stick penalties throughout the game. It's not acceptable. Me, myself included. We've got to be better - we're already struggling and that that doesn't help at all for sure.

On what was said during first intermission...

I mean, we've got nothing to lose here. We were already losing a couple of games in a row; we just say we've got to put our best effort. We've got to lay it out there and see what's going to happen, and I think that's what we did. We came back. Obviously, we didn't have the start we wanted, but throughout the whole game, we worked hard and we're on the right path. We haven't scored (many) goals either. So, having four goals tonight, it helps a little bit, but we're going to have to work a lot harder and be smarter too on our decisions.

On the play of Garrett Metcalf in his Gulls debut

Obviously, it was really cool to see that he could have a couple nice stops for us. I mean, he kept us in the game the whole time he was there and he did really good. Like you said, he just got here probably - we didn't see him this morning and he got here at the game and did an unbelievable job so really, props to him.

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