Gulls Head To The Desert For MidWeek Clash With The Silver Knights
Nov 7, 2022By Brett Pickler/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls travel to the desert for a matchup against the Henderson Silver Knights at Dollar Loan Center (7 p.m. PT; TV: AHL TV, RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
San Diego and Henderson begin an eight-game season tonight. The Gulls earned standings points in all eight meetings with the Silver Knights last season, posting a 6-0-0-2 record, outscoring their opponent 32-12 (excluding shootout goals). Lukas Dostal started in seven of eight contests, including his first career shutout Feb. 26 to become the youngest goaltender to record a shutout in Gulls AHL history (21 years, 249 days). The then-rookie netminder also recorded an impressive 1.41 GAA and a .952 SV% through those seven games. Jacob Perreault (4-5=9) and Nikolas Brouillard (3-6=9) were among team leaders against Henderson last season.
San Diego will look to lean on this success as they aim to snap their season-long three-game losing skid. The latest setback came against the Milwaukee Admirals in a 3-1 loss on Saturday at Pechanga Arena San Diego. Despite the setback, San Diego feels its close to breaking out.
"We did a lot of good things in our first few games, then we started to notice some holes in our game that needed to be addressed," Gulls assistant coach Kris Sparre said. "We addressed them. Our defensive game has gotten better, like I said, but you need to score to win hockey games and we will be looking to put everything on net. Lots of traffic and it’s going to turn our way soon."
The increase in offensive zone time is giving players more confidence. Forward Pavol Regenda is riding a three-game point streak (2-1=3) and his offensive ability is creating chances for anyone on the ice with him. An example is Perreault, who took a high-skilled pass from Regenda before splitting the Milwaukee defense for a highlight-reel tally. These two players look to continue their dominance with the puck against a struggling Henderson team.
Although the Silver Knights come into tonight on a two-game skid, they have weapons that the Gulls must contain. Forward Sheldon Rempal enters the game leading his team with 5-3=8 points and is coming off a career year where he netted 33 goals and tallied 69 points. He is lethal on the power play and is not afraid to shoot the puck. Additionally, defenseman Daniil Mirmanov is riding a three-game point streak. San Diego’s defense needs to continue their current trajectory if they want to shut down Henderson.
"You think of [the defensive zone] as five, one-on-one battles, but at the same time if I’m going in and engaging in a battle, I’m expecting that there will be layers behind me," Gulls forward Justin Kirkland said on the team’s defensive mindset. "So, if anything happens in my battle, there’s guys that are standing there behind ready to hop in. I thought we did a good job of that this weekend. We supported each other closely in the D-zone and that also helped our breakouts transition into offense."
Sparre noted the goal is clear – to return to the collective mindset that brought success earlier this season.
"We’re really just trying to find our team game," he said. "We started to see it in spurts. Took some steps last weekend, that’s for sure. Now, we’re just going to keep building on that and worry about us first."