Gulls Search For Seventh Straight Win In Afternoon Rivalry Matchup
Apr 4, 2021The San Diego Gulls look to make it five straight wins over the Ontario Reign as they visit their Southern California rival Sunday at Toyota Sports Performance Center (3 p.m.; TV: AHL.TV; Radio: Gulls Audio Network). San Diego owns an eight-game point streak against Ontario (6-0-2-0).
The Gulls enter play Sunday riding a six-game win streak after a 7-3 victory over the San Jose Barracuda on Saturday at FivePoint Arena. Chase De Leo posted 1-2=3 points, one of five Gulls to notch a multi-point effort in the offensive outburst. San Diego scored seven goals in back-to-back games for the first time in club history.
With three power-play goals Saturday, San Diego converted seven times with the man-advantage in the last four games (6-for-21, 28.6%).
“It’s nice to get a little chemistry on the power-play unit,” said De Leo. “Usually everyday there are new guys, new bodies getting called up or sent down. We’ve had the same group for the last few games and it’s nice to be clicking.”
San Diego visits Ontario looking for more of the same success from the first four meetings. The Gulls outscored the Reign 19-9 thus far, winning each of the four contests. The teams last met four days ago as the Gulls rolled to a 7-2 victory on home ice. Andrew Poturalski leads the season series with 1-7=8 points in four games, including a career-best 1-3=4 points on Feb. 20.
“It’s a big game for us,” said Gulls head coach Kevin Dineen. “We understand the standings are a little odd this year. There are a lot of teams who haven’t played as many games as us. We know we’ve got keep our winning percentage up. We’ve had some success against Ontario and we want that to continue.”
San Diego will look to extend its win with a road win, something the Gulls struggled to do consistently early in the season and a point of focus for the team.
“Our road record is starting to trend in the right direction,” said Dineen. “A lot of good things for our team right now, we just need to go out and do it.”
“As a team, we’re hot right now," added De Leo. "We’ve been a little bit streaky all year so we’ve got to keep riding this out as long as possible. “We’ve got a quick turnaround, so we’ve got to enjoy it for a second, forget about it and then reset.”
Ontario enters play Sunday sitting last in the Pacific Division by point percentage (.391), but winners in seven of its last ten games (7-3-0-0). The Reign struggle on home ice, posting a 5-5-2-0 record.
Kings top prospects Quinton Byfield (6-10=16) and Rasmus Kupari (4-12=16) co-lead the team in scoring.