Gulls Tame Silver Knights at Home 5-4
Dec 11, 2024By Samantha Mason/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls earned another victory on home ice tonight, beating the Henderson Silver Knights 5-4.
The Gulls have now earned standings points in four straight contests (3-0-0-1), improving to 7-12-1-2 on the season.
Henderson scored first less than a minute in, but the Gulls weren’t fazed and were able to quickly catch up. The Gulls’ first goal came from Nikita Nesterenko, assisted by Pavol Regenda and Andrew Lucas.
"Even though you get scored on that first one, it's not like you're looking at it as some giant mistake from a team perspective," head coach Matt McIlvane said. "It's a crazy bounce off the side of the net. And I thought that over our last few games, since we've rolled into December here, we have rediscovered an identity of who we are as a team. We've gelled and formed as a group, and that's allowed us to have something to stand on. I thought the guy showed that quite a bit today."
Yegor Sidorov netted the second goal for San Diego, also assisted by Lucas and Nesterenko. It was the third game with a goal from Sidorov, making this streak his longest in his AHL career. Similarly, tonight marks the first multi-point night for Lucas (0-2=2).
Sidorov scored again in the second period, his second multi-goal game of the season. Jaxsen Wiebe scored the fourth Gulls goal of the night, his first point and goal of the campaign.
Judd Caulfield opened the third period with his second goal in as many games and the fifth of the night, bringing the Gulls up to a lead of 5-3.
"We’re a team that knows their role," center Nathan Gaucher said. "We just want to play hard. Every team that's going to come here is going to have a hard time and on the road as well, but just follow the game plan. Play hard. That's our style of hockey, and we're doing it well."
The Gulls finish their four-game homestead this Saturday where they will compete against the San Jose Barracuda.