Gulls Fight Hard, Fall to Barracuda
Nov 13, 2024By Samantha Mason/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls fell short against the San Jose Barracuda tonight, losing 2-1 at Tech CU Arena.
San Diego couldn’t solve San Jose goaltender Yaroslav Askarov, who made 48-of-49 saves in the contest.
The Gulls put up a good fight tonight despite Askarov, with their 49 shots being one off a team record last set in 2016. Sam Colangelo scored San Diego’s lone goal of the game, a power play goal in the second frame, assisted by Tristan Luneau and Yegor Sidorov. It was Colangelo’s eighth goal of the season, moving him into a tie for sixth place among the AHL’s league leaders in goals.
San Jose quickly caught up later in the period, as Thomas Bordeleau tied the game 1-1. The game saw a high number of power plays and penalties.
"When there’s that many power plays, there’s no flow to the game," said right wing Carson Meyer. "It didn’t feel like there was very much 5-on-5 going on tonight. It was a wild game that you don’t see very often."
San Diego had the go-ahead goal for a split second in the third frame, but it was ultimately waived off after the officials determined the puck went out of play despite there being no whistle.
The two teams were knotted for a majority of the game, before Bordeleau scored his second in the third period to ice the game.
"When you get 50 shots on goal, you're doing something right," head coach Matt McIlvane said. "There's a lot of special teams in this game, especially early for us. We had a lot of shots at the power play. And we earned all of the power plays we felt. The difference in the game ends up being special teams. All the goals were scored on power plays, and, in the end, we take a tripping penalty and they get rewarded."
"The takeaway from the game is that was a really competitive effort from our group. You're always looking for where's the edge and the edge is in the little things like a penalty, but there's a lot of good from our guys today."
Calle Clang had yet another stellar performance in net despite the lack of goals, stopping 30-of-32 shots.
This game comes in the wake of Jansen Harkins and Drew Helleson being called up to the Anaheim Ducks just hours before the Gulls hit the ice. Defenseman Dillon Heatherington also missed out on the game due to injury.
The Gulls return home this Saturday to Pechanga Arena to take on the Bakersfield Condors for Military Appreciation Night (6 p.m. PST). The first 8,000 fans in attendance will receive a Gulls Navy-themed hat brought to you by Indian Motorcycle of San Diego.