PREVIEW: Gulls Continue Franchise-Record Road Trip Tonight In Henderson
Feb 24, 2022By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls continue their franchise-record eight-game road against the Henderson Silver Knights with back-to-back games starting tonight Orleans Arena (7 p.m. PT; TV: Fox 5 San Diego; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
This game also marks Gulls forward Lucas Elvenes’ first game against his old club after the Ducks claimed him off waivers from the Vegas Golden Knights on Jan. 11. 2022, as well as the first time Gulls center Danny O’Regan will play his former team on their home turf.
"I’m excited," O’Regan said after a recent Gulls practice. "It’ll be cool to, you know, play in that rink again. Played with them last year, obviously. I’m excited to get back there."
The Gulls enter Orleans Arena riding a three-game point streak against Henderson (2-0-1), including a 6-3 victory on Nov. 10, 2021. The six goals the Gulls scored remain the most San Diego notched in a single game this year. In that win, six Gulls recorded multi-point nights, led by a three-point performance from Vinni Lettieri (2-1=3). Jacob Perreault, Axel Andersson and Brayden Tracey scored a goal and added an assist while Nikolas Brouillard (0-2=2) and Hunter Drew (0-2=2) collected multiple assists.
After a weekend of strong play – but two one-goal losses to the Ontario Reign – the Gulls are confident their level of play is trending in the right direction.
"I think we’re just working on ourselves," O’Regan said. "We played a good team last weekend. You know, we realized we were right there, right in the game and if we could just clean up a couple areas of our game, I think we would really take that next step and start seeing us getting a lot more wins and a lot more success."
Drew is one of the Gulls whose game reflects this betterment. The Gulls forward is on a career-best four-game point streak and his 4-3=7 points over that span comprise almost a third of his 10-12=22 points. In San Diego’s Feb. 20 loss to the Reign, the right wing also set career highs for goals and points in a game with 2-1=3 points, earning back-to-back multi-point efforts for the first time in his career while grabbing the team lead in goals (10).
"I think they see it now," Gulls head coach Joel Bouchard said. "I think we’re past the point of them not knowing their place. They realize who we’ve got and they realize the way we need to play and we did have success and we have a few players back from all of the adversity we had and now, I think they’re realizing that we’re taking stride. Again, where we are right now is what it is. It’s where we’re going to be down the road and that’s always what I look for in a team is how much we can progress."
Drew was also tied for second in the American Hockey League for the most points earned (3-3=6) and tied for first with a +7 rating from Feb. 14- Feb. 20.
Brent Gates Jr. accompanied his teammate at the top of the AHL during that same timeframe, ranking tied for third with three goals. Gates Jr. enters tonight riding a career-best four-game goal streak (5-1=6).
One player the Gulls will need to focus on is Henderson’s Pavel Dorofeyev, who scored the lone goal in the Silver Knights 4-1 loss to the Ontario Reign on Wednesday. He leads the team with 18-16=34 points.
San Diego will also have to watch out for Daniil Miromanov, who is second among rookie defensemen with 23 assists while ranking second on Henderson in scoring with 6-23=29 points.
For the Gulls, this game and the overarching road trip is about consistent improvement, hoping those changes lead to sustained success.
"You know, you want to win every game and you want to play your best every game, but it’s nice to see that we’re right there," O’Regan said. "So, just got to sharpen up a couple of things and I think we’ll be taking that stride soon."