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AHL San Diego Gulls

Tucson Fends off Gulls

February 6, 2022 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls dropped a 5-4 decision to the Tucson Roadrunners Saturday night at Pechanga Arena San Diego.

Nikolas Brouillard opened the scoring with his eighth goal of the season and now leads all AHL defensemen in goal scoring. Brouillard has goals in back-to-back games (2-1=3) and has scored four goals over his last six games overall. His 8-13=21 points leads Gulls blueliners, while ranking second among all club skaters in points (21), tied for third in assists (13) and tied for second in goals (8).

Danny O'Regan registered a multi-point performance (1-1=2) for a second straight game, his first time as a Gull, and has posted 2-4=6 points over his last two games. O'Regan's 5-5=10 power-play points leads the team and his five power-play goals are the most on the club.

Vinni Lettieri matched his Gulls career best with a 1-2=3 point performance.

Brogan Rafferty scored his second power-play goal of the season to give him points in back-to-back games (1-2=3). Rafferty ranks second among Gulls defensemen in goals, assists and points with 4-11=15 points.

Lucas Elvenes, Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Brendan Guhle earned assists. Guhle's assist gives him points in consecutive games (1-1=2) for the first time this season.

Lukas Dostal stopped all seven shots faced in 23:33 minutes of relief.

The Gulls conclude their four-game homestand Friday, Feb. 11 against the San Jose Barracuda at Pechanga Arena San Diego (7 p.m. PT).

POSTGAME QUOTES

San Diego Gulls

Head Coach Joel Bouchard

On how Tucson generated quality scoring chances:

I would say it was one of those games where we came pretty hard. Well, it's tough because at the end of the day, you're right, but then you gotta give something. I'm not pointing the finger at Olle (Eriksson Ek). That's- it was one of those games for him too- it's a breakaway, it's a backdoor, but he didn't get many shots either so its tough for him to get in the game. He hasn't played, he played two games last weekend, but before that, he didn't play since December 17th. So, you're kind of going like, 'okay, I kind of want to give him that work'. I'm proud of the guys. The way we fought back. I thought we had scoring chances, we had a lot of offense tonight. Guys that are back with us kind of got more ice time so it'd just one of those situations, right? Where you're in the game, the guys are fighting, the result is not what you want, but let's see how we can gather back together after the break.

On the goaltending change in the second period:

I don't think guys were down, guys wanted to win for Olle too. That's why I left him in there because the guys came with good spirit from the get-go of this game. The game last night was important for us and then we came to play and we scored the first goal and then they got two shots and two goals. You just kind of go back in the second and then you score a goal and then you give another one right after and kind of a structure that just seems that every time they came in it was that way. I changed Olle because it was just not a good situation for him, it wasn't his night. Again, he didn't really like get any point shots or anything, He just came in and got those scrambly plays. So, I just felt it was kind of an odd situation

On if the break is coming at a good time:

Well, I'll tell you what there's one thing- I deal with the situation that's ahead of me. The break is there, you're right. I feel that we took strides this week, got some bodies back. I'll tell you what, this year has been what it is. I mean, Patrick I'm telling you, it's been up and down in every different direction. I was pretty happy to see Pat Verbeek came to the game. That's important for a guy that just got named. There's a lot of moving parts so the guys played hard, they came out. So, that's what's important. The break is part of what it is. The guys can refresh, you're right, it's been an up and down situation with COVID. It's stretched it for so long for us. I kind of have to gather the effort and gather it over the last three games. Our structure got better and better with guys that came up and down. So, obviously, there's a lot of things going in my head so that break is going to give me the chance to gather things up and line up a plan for the guys too when we get back.

Vinni Lettieri

On how Tucson generated high-quality chances:

I just think from the games we played so far, these last three, we've kind of been doing it to ourselves. The times that we been playing well, we stayed in our structure. That really helped us a lot to keep ourselves in the games at some points, but we've just got to be better and work harder for our goaltenders.

On the team's response after each Tucson goal:

Yeah I feel like that's just has been our identity from the start of the season. The coaching staff has been kind of making it our motto, but obviously, the way we look in the standings- it doesn't look like that. But the way we practice and show up every day. We're all all professionals the guys don't get enough credit for how hard they're working. It's going to come eventually, but we've just gotta take it one game at a time.

On the positives the team can take from this game heading into the break:

Like we just talked about- a little bit about our fight even though the score was a little lopsided at the end we had that fight and we kept coming back and we didn't make easy on them. Now, into this break, just rest and kind of recover a bit and come back with a new mindset to and just get back into the win column.

Check out the San Diego Gulls Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from February 6, 2022


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