Gulls Host Silver Knights For First Time In Team History
Mar 14, 2021The San Diego Gulls (9-8-0-0) finish a weekend set of back-to-back games today with an afternoon matchup against the Henderson Silver Knights (10-2-0-0) at FivePoint Arena (3 p.m. PT; TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network). It’s the first time in franchise history the Gulls will hose the American Hockey League’s newest team.
San Diego enters the afternoon affair leading the AHL in both home wins (8) and points (16).
The Gulls and Silver Knights meet today for the fourth matchup of a six-game season as San Diego searches for its first win against their new Pacific Division rival. Playing in their inaugural season, Henderson became the first club to join the AHL’s Pacific Division since the Colorado Eagles in 2018-19. They won the first three meetings between the clubs, sweeping a three-game series at Orleans Arena from Feb. 24 to Feb. 27.
“We knew this weekend was going to be a tough weekend to get points; two good teams,” Gulls captain Sam Carrick said following last night’s game. “Tomorrow is a huge matchup. We had that tough road trip. I think we actually played pretty well that road trip. We didn’t get the results we wanted but I think we proved to ourselves that if we play the right way, play our style of game and have everyone contributing, we can go up against any team in this league. We have to prove that tomorrow.”
San Diego enters today looking to snap a three-game losing streak. The Gulls couldn’t overcome a barrage of shots from the Tucson Roadrunners last night, falling 4-1 for just their second loss on home ice. Lane Pederson (1-1=2), Nate Sucese (1-1=2), Ryan McGregor (0-2=2) and former Gulls forward Kevin Roy (0-2=2) recorded multi-point games to lead Tucson offensively. Connor LaCouvee made 16 saves to earn his first victory as a Roadrunner.
Andrew Poturalski scored the lone goal for San Diego, collecting his seventh point in his last seven games.
“It’s easy to get frustrated right now,” Carrick said. “We’re not seeing results. At the end of the day, I don’t think the score was too indicative of how we played. Obviously, we got outshot and our goalie played really well, but there are some positives we can take from this. The worst thing we can do right now is act frustrated. We’ve got a big game tomorrow and we’ve got to bounce back. There’s no better way to do it than take some positives from tonight and move on.”
San Diego turned the puck over several times, an area of focus heading into today’s contest.
“It’s always concerning, anytime you have turnovers and when you’re trying to make plays, there are going to be turnovers, but we feel they are preventable,” head coach Kevin Dineen explained. “We feel that they’re preventable and we have to start moving the puck the puck a little crisper and cleaner. We have to move before the puck arrives, we’re standing still. It’s a deadly game to play when you’re standing still. It just doesn’t work and it was pretty obvious tonight.”
Henderson enters today leading the AHL in both wins (10) and points (20). The Silver Knights are 8-2-0 in their last 10 games and lead the Pacific Division in their inaugural season. They suffered a rare defeat yesterday, seeing their six-game win streak end with a 4-2 loss to the Ontario Reign.
The Silver Knights are led offensively by veteran defenseman Ryan Murphy (3-8=11). Rookie Jack Dugan is third among all rookie skaters with 10 points (1-9=10), and Gage Quinney recently recorded the first hat trick in Henderson’s brief history. He enters the afternoon leading the team with seven goals.
Goaltender Oskar Dansk leads the Silver Knights with a 3-1-0 record, posting a 2.94 goals-against average and .909 save percentage.