PREVIEW: Gulls Look To Snap Losing Skid In Series Finale Against Wild
Jan 29, 2022By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls look to snap a four-game losing streak this afternoon in the second and final matchup of the weekend series this afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena (4 p.m. PT; TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
The Gulls dropped last night’s game 3-2 and saw its overall record against the Wild move to 7-3-1-0 (3-2-1-0 on the road). The game may represent the Gulls fourth consecutive loss, but the team executed its game plan well and feels the scoring chances they generated will lead to more success.
"It’s definitely tough; being on a three-game, now a four-game losing streak makes it a little tougher," Gulls left wing Greg Printz said after last night’s game. "It’s just that we know we played a good game. We deserved to win, but we just didn’t capitalize on some of our chances. So, it definitely stings a little bit, but we’ll get back at it, regroup and be ready to play tomorrow."
Wild netminder Zayne McIntyre stole the show last night, stopping 29-of-30 shots. He’s allowed three-goals-or-less in his last six games.
Despite those efforts, the Gulls put together multiple comeback attempts, as the team brought the score within one twice in the game.
Benoit-Olivier Groulx scored his fifth goal to tie his season-high point-streak of three game (2-1=3), while Greg Printz collected his third goal of the season.
Gulls head coach Joel Bouchard feels the team generated plenty of quality scoring chances. The key is cashing in on those opportunities.
"I think we created a lot of offense tonight in some way, and sometimes we didn’t," he said. "We gotta push them to be better. We did have some good looks. I feel like we got a couple of goals tonight and I’m gonna push the guys so we bear down more on some of the scoring chances we had. We had like five primary scoring chances. So, what does it do? It puts more pressure on the guys. You score a couple of goals there we might be talking about a 4-3 game. So, I cannot just be looking at the scoreboard. I gotta look at the process. That being said, we’re gonna push to finish more on those."
Alex Limoges earned an assist to earn his fifth point (4-1=5) in his last five games. Gulls defenseman Brogan Rafferty earned his second assist in two games (0-2=2) on the play and is second on the Gulls among defensemen in points (3-9=12) and assists (9).
The Wild were led by offense from the blueline last night, including a key assist on the game-winning goal from Joe Hicketts. The defenseman is ranked tied for ninth among league rearguards with 7-14=21 points and is tied for the lead among American Hockey League defensemen in goals.
The reason Iowa's defense played a large role - all three of its goals came immediately following faceoff wins.
"I bet you they’re all faceoff plays as much as they are you lose faceoff and then it falls right on their blade then they got a chance to bring the puck to the net," Bouchard said. "They were all long shots, to be honest. It’s not like we got beat by a play backdoor. We made a couple of good faceoff play and didn’t score on it and we had open nets. So, now those pucks find a hole to get in. We look at the replay and it was just like “okay.” It just went in tonight for them on those goals. It’s unfortunate. It’s what it is. For me, as long as they have a good attitude, they compete, they work in the process, they stick together, I’ll work with them. The only time I got mad this year is when we let the other team kinda take over us and we didn’t have any push back. We did have a push back."
Additionally, San Diego will also need to watch for Wild rookie Marco Rossi, who not only earned an assist against the Gulls last night to extend his point streak to three games (2-1=3), but ranks fifth among first-year skaters with 10-29=29 points.
"We came out of the gate on the road really well," Bouchard said. "I thought we came out pretty good. It’s been tough the last few games, right? We lost some games and we did good, but we lost. I think tonight the guys had good intention. We fought through. We didn’t connect on a couple of the scoring chances that would have been good. But I still liked a lot of engagement in the game. I don’t think we got dominated, far from it. I thought we had some really good o-zone time today and some good looks offensively. They showed up, they work hard. The scoreboard is one thing, but I cannot just coach the scoreboard."