Carrick Records Multi-Point Game As Gulls Drop Third Straight
Jan 26, 2022By AJ Manderichio/SanDiegoGulls.com
A furious third-period comeback fell short tonight as the San Diego Gulls lost to the Colorado Eagles 5-3 at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
Kiefer Sherwood (2-1=3) and Jordan Gross (0-3=3) led the Eagles to a league-leading eighth straight win. Dylan Sikura (1-1=2) and Rob Hamilton (0-2=2) also recorded multi-point efforts as Colorado also earned a point in their 10th straight game.
Goaltender Justus Annunen stopped 15-of-18 shots to stretch his win streak to eight games.
Alex Limoges, Nikolas Brouillard and Trevor Carrick scored for the Gulls, who suffered a third straight loss. Goaltender Olle Eriksson Ek, reassigned by the Anaheim Ducks before tonight's game, stopped 35 shots in his first start since Dec. 18.
"You play a good team and you’ve gotta make sure you’re on task," Gulls head coach Joel Bouchard said. "Like I said, I thought the first was decently good and the third, you’re right, we bounced back. We had a good talk between periods. Kind of a failing in the second. We’ve still got some young and guys that are moving around, but obviously, not the result we wanted. That being said, it’s a big week for us. We’re on the road tomorrow and its professional hockey. Going to have to learn and move on."
The teams traded goals with under three minutes remaining in the opening period.
Limoges opened the scoring, converting on San Diego's first power-play chance of the game with 2:47 remaining in the opening frame.
Kodie Curran started the play, scooping the puck from the blue line and into the corner of Colorado's zone. It took a hometown bounce off the wall, skipping away from a surprised Justus Annunen and into the middle of the slot. An Eagles defenseman took a wild swinging attempt to clear the puck, whiffing and falling to the ice. Limoges cleaned up, snapping the puck into the net before Annunen could recover for his eighth goal of the season.
Limoges continued his recent goal-scoring binge, collecting his fourth goal in the last six games. Curran extended his point streak to three games (1-2=3).
Sherwood tied the game just 32 seconds later, converting on a 3-on-2 rush for his 12th goal of the season.
Special teams swung the game in the second period, with Colorado’s power-play scoring twice in the first 5:17 of the middle frame.
Martin Kaut gave the Eagles the 2-1 lead with a man-advantage goal just 1:19 into the middle frame.
Colorado worked a set play down low, with Jordan Gross connecting with Sikura. Colorado's leading scorer fed a quick pass to Kaut in the middle, and his one-timed bid managed to squeak through Eriksson Ek and into the net for his eighth goal of the season.
Sherwood would strike next, collecting his second goal of the game at 5:17 of the period. The Eagles took advantage of a defensive-zone scramble, with Sherwood finding a soft spot in the faceoff circle to one-time Hamilton’s pass by a sliding Eriksson Ek for the goal.
The two-goal deficit wouldn’t deter Eriksson Ek, who continued to look sharp in denying the quality scoring chances that followed. The Gulls netminder stopped 11-of-13 shots in the second period and had 28 saves through 40 minutes.
"Well, not an easy situation, right?" Bouchars said. "He and (defenseman Brogan) Rafferty came in and battled. It’s a pretty long day and they got up pretty early this morning San Diego time and traveled down here. I thought they handled that very well, they were professional."
Colorado would stretch its lead to three early in the third period, with Sikura scoring the team’s third power-play goal on a deflection at 8:20 of the period.
"Yeah, It’s a very fine line I think," Brouillard said when asked about finding the line between physical play and penalties. "They had a really good power play hurt us a lot. I won’t lie. But sometimes you are trying to play hard, you are trying to make the right play and you trying to be psychical. The game is just not giving you right bounces. I think that is kind of what happened today. We had a couple penalties where you always debate and that it did not go on our side and definitely hurt us for sure."
The Gulls refused to go down without a fight, as Brouillard pulled his team within two at 9:43 of the final frame.
"Yeah, I mean, I saw LV going out," Brouillard said. "I thought I could be backdoor by myself. There was guy a little bit behind so he had to pass it on my backhand, as soon as I got the puck I didn’t have good look on backhand. So I decided just to turn that The guy that was covering me fell. It gave me time, and I was looking backdoor to make pass and I had so much time so I just took the middle and ripped one far side in the top. It gave us a little push and we almost got back into the game because of that."
Elvenes continues his impressive run with San Diego, picking up his ninth point (2-7=9) in his seventh game with the team.
The goal sparked San Diego, who came within one on a Trevor Carrick power-play goal with 2:29 left in regulation.
With a 6-on-4 attack – the Gulls pulled Eriksson Ek for the extra skater – Carrick snuck down from the slot, joining a mass of bodies at the front of the net. Benoit-Olivier Groulx sent a low wrist shot toward the net-front traffic, and Carrick deflected it past Annunen for Carrick’s fifth goal of the season.
The defenseman is enjoying a solid offensive stretch with 3-2=5 points in his last five games.
The Eagles would ice the win, withstanding one last push from the Gulls before Callahan Burke hit the empty net with 15 seconds left in regulation.
San Diego hits the road for a short two-game set with the Iowa Wild. The teams open their back-to-back series on Friday at 5 p.m. PT.
"Yeah, I mean it is quick turnaround," Brouillard said. "We have been out for a week now with the Abbotsford game. We just got back on Monday. Now we play today. We are going back on the road tomorrow. We just need to eat, to get enough food in and the sleep is very important."