PREVIEW: Gulls Open Season In Grand Rapids
Oct 14, 2022By Paige Burnell/SanDeigoGulls.com
Hockey. Is. Back.
The San Diego Gulls open the 2022-23 regular season against the Grand Rapids Griffins tonight in the first of back-to-back meetings this weekend at Van Andel Arena (4 p.m. PDT, Radio: Gulls Audio Network, Free Stream: AHLTV).
This game marks the fifth time San Diego opens a season on the road and the second time the Gulls begin the regular season against Grand Rapids. San Diego is 4-3 all-time in season openers, including the first-ever Gulls American Hockey League contest on Oct. 10, 2015against Grand Rapids, which ended in a 4-2 win.
"They’re going to be a good opponent," head coach Roy Sommer said of Grand Rapids. "It’s kind of good to get the guys on the road. They’re going to have a team meal…together and get to do a little bit of bonding and then get at it for two games."
San Diego and Grand Rapids open a four-game regular-season series tonight. The Gulls have not played against the Griffins since their 3-1 win against the club on Jan. 25, 2020. The teams went 1-1-1-1 in 2019-20, and San Diego owns a 2-2-1-1 all-time record against Grand Rapids.
San Diego’s season opening roster consists of 15 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders. Of these 23 players, 16 are returning and seven will be making their Gulls debuts.
Among the returning players is a crop of young Anaheim Ducks prospects, all looking to take the next step in their first full professional seasons. Blake McLaughlin is one of those young skaters who looks to build off his nine games with San Diego last season.
"It was my first pro season so (I’m) just trying to be as ready as possible," McLaughlin said. "Over these last six, seven weeks, we’ve had our rookie camp, main camp, A camp (AHL camp) too so we’ve been preparing the last seven weeks as a team and I think we’re going to be ready to go at puck drop."
Another former Gull returning to the flock is Chase De Leo, who still ranks fourth in goals, points, assists and seventh in appearances among Gulls all-time franchise leaders despite spending the 2021-22 season with the Utica Comets. De Leo led Utica in points (21-35=56) and assists in 55 AHL games in 2021-22, while setting career highs in scoring, goals and tying his career best in assists.
Additionally, the Gulls terrific tandem of Lukas Dostal and Olle Eriksson Ek will mind the net for San Diego once again.
Dostal, who will likely start for San Diego tonight, is coming off a stellar 2021-22 season after posting an 18-14-4 record with two shutouts in 40 appearances, finishing with Gulls rookie goaltender season records for games played, lowest goals-against average (2.60), minutes played (2,189) and shutouts, and ranking second in saves (1038), save percentage (.916), shots faced (1133) and wins (18).
The Czechian netminder also made organization history after scoring the first goaltender goal in Anaheim Ducks history (NHL or AHL) on Mar. 2 at Colorado. In addition, Dostal stopped 33-of-36 shots en route to his first National Hockey League victory to establish the record for most saves by a Ducks goaltender in their NHL debut on Jan. 9 vs Detroit.
Other familiar faces include center Brent Gates Jr. and defenseman Nikolas Brouillard, who both recently signed standard player contracts along with newcomers Josh Healey, Dmitry Osipov and Luka Profaca.
If Profaca plays this weekend, it will mark his AHL debut. In addition, newcomers Healey, Osipov, Justin Kirkland, Glenn Gawdin, Austin Strand and Olli Juolevi will hit the ice as Gulls for the first time.
"I think we’ve had a really good 10 days or whatever of training camp and the guys have been real focused and they’re ready to go," Sommer said of the current roster. "I think we’re going to be hard to play against. You know, they seem to like one another, which is a good thing early."
Grand Rapids returns plenty of skill of their own. Left wing Jonatan Berggen ended the 2021-22 season tied for first among AHL rookies in assists and ranked second among first-year skaters with 21-43=64 points.
Griffins captain Brian Lashoff is back for his 12th season – and third as team captain – with Grand Rapids, while fellow veterans Dominik Shine and former Gull Kyle Criscuolo will look to lead the charge.
"I think we kind of carry on a little bit with what we did in the exhibition game," Sommer said. "I thought we did a lot of good things. We had some new personnel, we’ve got some new guys down now, but I just think get the jitters out early. They’re going to come out at us hard, weather the storm first five minutes here and then play our game."