Gulls Losing Skid Hits Four In Another Close Loss
Jan 28, 2022By AJ Manderichio/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls losing streak reached a season-high four games as they fell to the Iowa Wild 3-2 in tonight's game at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, IA.
Bryce Gervais led all skaters with 1-1=2 and scored the game-winning goal in the second period to lead Iowa to a second straight win. Mason Shaw and Keaton Thompson also scored to support a stellar 29-save effort from Zane McIntyre.
Greg Printz and Benoit-Olivier Groulx scored for the Gulls. Olle Eriksson Ek stopped 17 of 20 shots.
"It’s definitely tough; being on a three-game, now a four-game losing streak makes it a little tougher," Printz said. "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."
Despite not seeing each other since the 2019-20 season, the two teams opened the game with physical play. It boiled over quickly, with the game's first fight coming just before the five-minute mark of the opening period.
Mike McKee and Iowa's Cody McLeod quickly tossed off the gloves and squared up, with Iowa's captain throwing jabs in quick succession. McKee withstood the early attack, responding with a clean upper cut. McLeod responded in kind before McKee wrestled him down to the ice.
It's the first fighting major for the hulking Gulls defenseman. McLeod earned his ninth fighting major of the season.
Iowa would deliver the next blow, opening the scoring on Shaw’s power-play goal with 3:46 left in the period.
The Wild won the faceoff, with Calen Addison controlling the puck at the point. He sent a pass to Marco Rossi, who one-timed the puck toward the net. Shaw, parked in front of Eriksson Ek, deflected the puck past the Gulls netminder and into the back of the net for his 11th goal of the season.
The Gulls have allowed a power-play goal in four straight games.
Thompson doubled Iowa's lead, scoring his first goal of the season with 2:15 remaining in the opening frame. Gervais won the puck back to the former Gull, who sent a point shot through traffic and past Eriksson Ek.
Printz responded for the Gulls, getting them on the board with 1:20 left in the period.
"It started on the o-zone faceoff," Printz said. "I think we lost it, kind of went around the boards. Raffey (Rafferty) pinched in a little bit, made a good play, tried to get to the net. I was on the ice so I stopped it, turned and just ripped it as hard as I could and it ended up going in the back of the net so I was pretty excited about that."
Rafferty has assists in his last two games.
Gervais restored Iowa's two-goal lead at 5:13 of the middle frame.
The Wild once again scored immediately following an offensive-zone faceoff win, with Gervais deflecting a hard shot from defenseman Joe Hicketts past Eriksson Ek for his first goal of the season.
Hicketts continues his solid season, moving to ninth among American Hockey League defenseman with 7-14=21 points.
"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," Gulls head coach Joel 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."
Groulx brought San Diego within one with 6:50 left in the period.
Alex Limoges held the puck in the corner of the offensive zone, sending a pass through his defenseman and onto the stick of a cutting Groulx. The center didn't miss, firing his shot past McIntyre for his fifth goal of the season.
With the goal, Groulx extended his point streak to three games (2-1=3). He has six points (3-3=6) in his last seven games.
Limoges recorded a point in his second consecutive game (1-1=2).
The physical play continued, with Jacob Perreault and Gervais dropping the gloves with 6:22 left in the period. The Gulls rookie stepped in to defend his teammate, Axel Andersson, peeling Gervais away from the Swede and dropping the gloves. The lightweight bout featured two solid right-hand shots from Perreault before the linseman ended the tilt.
Despite a continued push, the Gulls couldn’t find the game-tying tally. McIntyre and the Wild allowed the Gulls just five shots on net in the third period to skate away with the win.
"I think we created a lot of offense tonight in some way, and sometimes we didn’t," Bouchard 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 from Moisan to Rafferty to Printz twice, and he scored a nice goal, but then we’re not ending up scoring. 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."
The two teams will close this weekend series tomorrow at 4 p.m. PT.