Gulls Seek a Fourth Win Over Reign
Mar 1, 2024By Morgan Korovec/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls are back in SoCal.
Tonight, the Gulls get set to square off with the Ontario Reign for a Friday night showdown at Toyota Arena (7 p.m. PST) for their sixth matchup of the season. San Diego has three victories in its first five matchups over Ontario.
Heading into tonight’s contest, the Gulls are fresh off a Texas road trip. Between traveling to Austin, back to San Diego, and heading up to Ontario, the team will look to kick off the first of 13 games in the month of March on the right foot.
The Gulls found themselves in a string of one-goal losses in the latter half of February, coming out on the wrong end of tightly contested battles despite powerful pushes to flip the script.
Their most recent contest followed this same tune as San Diego’s determined comeback effort came up just short 4-3 in the second of back-to-backs with the Texas Stars at H-E-B Center Wednesday night.
The matchup saw Olen Zellweger put the team on the board in the middle frame with his sixth power-play goal of the season, which paces all AHL blueliners. The final frame was highlighted by Josh Lopina netting his 10th goal of the season to narrow Texas’ lead to two goals. Glenn Gawdin then scored his 16th goal of the season to bring the Gulls within one. Despite a mighty surge to close the gap, San Diego couldn’t beat the clock to make it happen.
Wednesday’s game was a two-point night for two Gulls Skaters. Accompanying his power-play goal, Zellweger (12-25=37) tallied an assist. Gawdin (16-22=38) also picked up a helper, giving him his sixth multi-point effort of the season. He has recorded 4-10=14 points in his last nine games.
"I think we can build off the positives of tonight," Gawdin said. "Obviously, we know that we’re still coming up short, so we got to make some more adjustments. Stick to our systems, our game plan. We know that we have a system that works when we do it correctly."
"There’s a lot to take pride in for this group, and trying to earn that feeling of a win again is certainly what we’re fighting for," head coach Matt McIlvane added.
Following tonight, San Diego next heads to home ice to faceoff with the Bakersfield Condors on Monday, Mar. 4 (7 p.m. PST) for the first of nine contests at Pechanga Arena San Diego this month.