Gulls Fall Short In 3-2 OT Loss To Checkers

Nov 15, 2023

By Nick Aguilera & Morgan Korovec/SanDiegoGulls.com 

The San Diego Gulls took a shot at redemption, but ultimately fell to the Charlotte Checkers 3-2 in overtime Wednesday night at Pechanga Arena San Diego.  

"Yeah, it's kind of like you said the same old story," defenseman Trevor Carrick said. "We have glimpses of, you know, what we do best, and I think we saw that firsthand in the third, but we got away from it in the second. You know, when you do that, it's tough to come back from that. I even thought we had a good first.  

"We came out hard and working and it's hard to win games, especially in this league when you only play two periods." 

Offense was hard to come by for both teams in the first, as no one could find the back of the net for the first 18 minutes. That was until Andrew Agozzino forced a turnover in the offensive zone and Ben King fired a missile past Ludovic Waeber for his third goal of the season.  

King also recorded an assist, giving him his first professional multi-point game (1-1=2). 

The Checkers evened out the score at 10:18 in the second with a goal by Rasmus Asplund. They then jumped ahead five minutes later after Patrick Giles put one past Calle Clang, who made 27 saves on the night. 

"The second, we weren’t great, and [head coach Matt McIlvane] came in and we talked about that," King said. "We just had to bounce back, give ourselves a chance, and we did. We gave ourselves a chance and just came up short. So, we just gotta kind of put three periods together and we’ll be alright." 

San Diego still managed to even it up on the power play at 17:49 in the second after a shot from Carrick hit Pavol Regenda in front of the crease and trickled in. Regenda was credited with his team-leading eighth goal of the season and Carrick earned his team-leading ninth assist and 11th point (2-9=11). 

The Gulls gave it their all and competed through the end in their determined effort to grab the win on home ice. With 2:47 on the clock in overtime, Patrick Khodorenko of the Checkers shot the game-winning goal. 

"If you play the right way and you play hard, I think the hockey gods reward you," said King. "So, we just got to kind of keep pushing like that. And we’ll get little bounces here and there that’ll help us win the games at the end of the day."

The Gulls will wrap up their four-game homestand on Friday, closing out the season series with Charlotte at Pechanga Arena San Diego (7 p.m. PST).