LIVE: Gulls Earn First Win At Orleans Arena
Feb 25, 2022By AJ Manderichio/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls defeated the Henderson Silver Knights 5-2 in tonight's game at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
Postgame: Fox 5 San Diego | GameCenter
Danny O'Regan (2-1=3) and Alex Limoges (2-0=2) helped power a Gulls attack that scored a season-high three power-play goals. Greg Pateryn (0-3=3) matched a career-high for points in a game and Lukas Dostal stopped 27 shots for his 10th win of the season.
Third Period Recap
Limoges scored his second power-play goal of the game, giving the Gulls their largest lead of the game with 6:54 left in regulation.
O'Regan won a draw right after the Gulls earned their power-play chance, sending the puck to Pateryn. The Gulls captain fired a puck on net Jiri Patera stopped, but the Henderson netminder left a loose puck in the slot. Limoges, alone in front, moved the puck from his backhand to his forehand and sent it past the diving netminder for his 10th goal of the season.
O'Regan (2-1=3) and Pateryn (0-3=3) join Lettieri with three-point performances.
The three power-play goals mark the most in any game for the Gulls this season.
Lucas Elvenes collected his seventh goal of the season with 4:29 left in regulation, stuffing home a loose puck at the side of the net to burn his former team.
Pavel Dorofeyev collected his 19th goal of the season, stopping the Gulls run with a slap shot through Dostal with 2:49 left in the game.
Second Period Recap
Gage Quinney cut the deficit to one, scoring a power-play goal early in the middle frame to get Henderson on the board.
Daniil Miromanov found the left wing with a pass at the Gulls blue line, and Quinney worked himself in alone on Dostal. His shot from the slot beat the Gulls goaltender high to the glove side for his fifth goal of the season.
Limoges restored San Diego's two-goal advantage with a power-play goal with 6:28 remaining in the period.
Moments after Dostal made a key save, the Gulls established their attack in the Henderson zone. Lettieri held the puck above the faceoff circle, sending a floating puck toward Limoges. The Virginia native established himself at the post, tipping the puck off the glove and back of Jiri Petera for his ninth goal of the season.
Lettieri tied a season-high with three points (0-3=3), achieving the feat in both games against Henderson this season. Pateryn, who earned an assist on the goal, recorded his first multi-assist - and multi-point - game of the season.
After snapping an 0-for-17 streak with the man advantage in the first period, San Diego has multiple power-play tallies for the second time in the last six games. The Gulls are 3-for-6 on the power play against the SIlver Knights this season.
First Period Recap
O'Regan - the former Silver Knight - jumped all over his team in the first 5:01 of the game.
O'Regan opened the scoring at 4:31, collecting his eighth goal of the year to give San Diego a 1-0 lead.
Lettieri kept a puck alive along the side boards, sending a short pass to a waiting Kodie Curran at the point. The defenseman continued it on toward the net, where it hit off traffic and bounced between the hash marks. O'Regan collected it, spinning and firing a shot past Jiri Patera.
He'd strike just 30 seconds later, doubling San Diego's advantage with a power-play goal.
Lettieri cut toward the faceoff dot, gaining possession of the puck at the start of the man advantage. His pass found Pateryn, who immediately sent a shot toward the net. Patera made the first save, but left a rebound for O'Regan to poke home for his ninth goal of the season. The tally breaks an 0-for-17 streak for San Diego's power play.
The two goals mark the first multi-goal performance as a Gull for O'Regan, who collected his fourth multi-point performance of the season. Lettieri has six assists in his last six games.
Patera entered tonight with a 6-5-0 with a 2.51 GAA and .921 SV%. He's lost three of his last four games, posting a 3.04 GAA and .906 SV%.
Opposing him is Dostal, who came into tonight with a 9-8-0 with a 2.68 goals-against average (GAA) and .909 save percentage (SV%). Over his last eight games, Dostal posted a 4-2-0 record with a 2.11 GAA and a .936 SV%.
Since Jan. 7, Dostal ranks seventh among American Hockey League netminders in SV% (.936 – min. 200 minutes played) and 10th in GAA (2.11 – min. 200 minutes played).
Pregame News And Notes
San Diego continues their franchise-record eight-game road trip with a back-to-back weekend series against Henderson. The Gulls opened the road-heavy schedule with a 4-3 loss to the Ontario Reign on Sunday at Toyota Arena. Hunter Drew set career highs for goals and points in a game with 2-1=3 points, marking back-to-back multi-point efforts for the first time of his career. Drew also extended his point streak into a fourth game (4-3=6), establishing a new career best. He enters tonight leading the Gulls with 10 goals and ranks tied for third on the club with 10-12=22 points. Brent Gates Jr. continued his career high goal-scoring streak into a fourth game (5-1=6), scoring his seventh goal of the season at 14:11 of the first period.
The two division rivals continue an eight-game season series tonight. The Gulls won the first and only meeting of the year between the clubs so far, a 6-3 victory on Nov. 10. San Diego was powered by five different goal scorers, while 10 different skaters earned points in the win.
Pateryn will skate in his 200th career AHL game tonight, while head coach Joel Bouchard would reach the 100-win plateau with a victory tonight.