Gulls Go Down Early, Fall To Firebirds 4-2
Nov 8, 2023By Nick Aguilera/SanDiegoGulls.com
It was a spirted bout, but the San Diego Gulls couldn’t recover from a three-goal first period and fell to the Coachella Valley Firebirds 4-2 Wednesday night at Acrisure Arena.
"Coachella’s a great team," head coach Matt McIlvane said. "They’re well coached. They’re organized. When you get behind the eight ball like that in the first period, down three, that makes the rest of the game difficult. I thought we were a bit better in the second period. It’s good to be able to get on the board a couple times. It’s good to see a little bit of resiliency from our group that we know is in there. Bottom line, we gave them too much, and against great teams, that’s what happens."
San Diego went 0-2-2-0 in their four-game road trip and are now 2-3-2-0 away from Pechanga Arena San Diego.
Coachella Valley’s Cameron Hughes opened the scoring just under two minutes into the game after he found a loose puck in front of the net. Logan Morrison added two goals for the Firebirds later in the period to put them up 3-0.
Brayden Tracey got one back five minutes into the second, his first goal of the season. He was set up by Andrew Agozzino, who stretched his assist streak to four games (0-4=4).
The Gulls pulled to within one on the power play after Olen Zellweger blasted a one-timer from the blue line for his second goal of the season. Tristan Luneau picked up an assist, his first professional point and assist.
"It’s good to see Olen get on through from the point on a one-timer," McIlvane said. "A nice play from Tristan. I don’t think it goes in without [Pavol Regenda’s] screen. But they’re spending a lot of time working on it to get better and it’s good to see it go in for them."
Coachella Valley got a lucky bounce off Drew Helleson’s skate on a 5-on-3 opportunity to stretch their lead back to two. Ryker Evans was credited with the goal.
"The focus is always there [on penalties]," McIlvane said. "I think today we end up taking a reaching penalty and a penalty off the faceoff playing our hand with the puck that puts us down 3-on-5. It ends up costing us the one goal, two goal deficit. In the third period, it’s one more thing we have to clean up for sure."
Ben King extended his point streak to three games with an assist (1-2=3). He co-leads San Diego rookie skaters in points (2-3=5) alongside Zellweger.
After allowing three goals in the first, Calle Clang was solid in net the rest of the way and stopped 20-of-21 shots in the final two periods. He made 30 saves in total, his fifth straight start with 30-or-more saves.
The Gulls return home to Pechanga Arena San Diego this weekend for back-to-back games. The first will be a matchup with the Calgary Wranglers on Friday, Nov. 10 (7 p.m. PST) followed by San Diego’s annual Military Appreciation Night presented by Indian Motorcycle of San Diego on Saturday, Nov. 11 against the Colorado Eagles (6 p.m. PST).