Gulls Score Four in Third Period, Fall 6-5 to Firebirds
Oct 18, 2024By Austin Rush // SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls third period comeback falls just short tonight as they drop their 2024-25 home opener 6-5 to the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
The Firebirds opened the game with a trio of goals 4:30 apart. Jacob Melanson started the scoring with his first goal of the season at 9:16 of the first period. The Firebirds added two more goals from Eduard Sale and Ben Meyers 2:06 apart to grab a 3-0 lead on the Gulls. With 1:42 remaining in the first period, defenseman Roland McKeown blasted home a one-timer from the point for his first goal of the season to pull San Diego within two. Forwards Ryan Carpenter and Pavol Regenda tallied the assists.
In the second period, defenseman Cale Fleury netted a hat trick to extend Coachella’s lead to 6-1 after 40 minutes.
The Gulls wouldn’t go away easily as their first of four third period goals came off the stick of Sam Colangelo 5:01 into the period. Colangelo corralled a loose puck and fired a sharp-angled shot from the low left circle. Forwards Nikita Nesterenko and Josh Lopina secured their first assists of the campaign. Carpenter scored his first goal of the season tonight at 12:54 of the period with a one-timer from the slot. Regenda notched his second assist of the game while forward Carson Meyer had the secondary. With netminder Calle Clang pulled, McKeown and Sam Colangelo scored 40 seconds apart with under two minutes remaining in regulation to cut Coachella’s lead to one. In the final 71 seconds, San Diego threw everything they had at the net but was unable to find the equalizer.
"That's an encouraging third period. For me, it's a little score adjusted. We got to do it earlier, but nonetheless, it's good to see fight back and push and obviously give the fans something to cheer about," McKeown said. "It was a full building and we had loud fans, so I'm glad we gave them a bit of a show at the end."
The Gulls had seven players with multi-point games tonight. Regenda, Nesterenko, Meyer and Yegor Sidorov all registered two assists while McKeown and Colangelo both found the back of the net twice. Carpenter finished the night with one goal and one assist.
“When you have a game like this, the Home Opener, and there's a big stage set, there's so much hype around the game. Sometimes, when you get overhyped, it comes out as a flat effort and there wasn't enough movement. For me, that was the start of our game,” head coach Matt McIlvane said. “We were slow with the puck and we were slow to react in a lot of situations. I thought that carried into the second period, where we get behind. I understand that they were up 6-1 and maybe the game plan changes a little bit for them, but all of sudden we got something that we can latch onto and have success. That's what we did in the third period. It's too little, too late and not enough early.
San Diego turns their attention the Bakersfield Condors tomorrow night with a road tilt against the Pacific Division Opponent. Puck drop slated for 7 p.m.