Preview: After Big Opening Night Win, Gulls Ready To Run It Back Vs. Reign

Oct 15, 2023

By Nick Aguilera/SanDiegoGulls.com 

After a dominant opening night victory, the San Diego Gulls are ready to head back up to Toyota Arena to face the Ontario Reign Sunday afternoon. 

"It’s a fast turnaround from last night into this morning," Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane said. "We were able to watch a little bit of video and go into the locker and keep building on the things that we thought we did well in the game and look for opportunities to keep getting better, which there were plenty."

"We’re pleased in the growth that we showed in a week and we’ll try to move forward tomorrow."

Alex Stalock was the story of opening night as he only let in one goal, making 40 saves on 41 shots, the most by a Gull in a season opener. 

"Alex Stalock was great," McIlvane said. "He was a real calming influence for our team. He played the puck extremely well. We’re really fortunate that we have two great goalies. He showed real well for us in game one."

Pavol Regenda provided some offense, scoring twice for his second career multi-goal game (2-0=2). Jacob Perreault also netted a goal. With his first out of the way early, he’s already moving forward to focus on the Reign once again. 

"It’s always fun to score, but it was a really good team effort overall for the full 60," Perreault said. "We have a really good team and we’re ready for a big run here.

"[We need to] do the same thing that we did for practice and all that. Just not change anything. You can’t really predict what’s going to happen in the game, but if we just stick to our roots, I think we’ll be pretty good."

The Gulls’ special teams was also a bright spot, killing all six penalties thrown their way while netting a power-play goal on two chances with the man advantage.  

"I thought systematically we played a pretty structured game," McIlvane said. "I thought we defended around our net against an Ontario team with a lot of prolific offensive [players]. I thought that was good. I think you can’t answer that question without getting into special teams. Our penalty kill I thought was real strong. The power play got us on the board early, so that was certainly something that was good."

Four players made their professional debuts on Friday: defensemen Tyson Hinds and Olen Zellweger, center Nathan Gaucher and left winger Sasha Pastujov. All four held their own, especially Zellweger, who posted his first career AHL multi-assist game. With game one out of the way, out go the butterflies with it. 

"It’s not easy to play your first game," McIlvane said. "There’s a lot of energy that comes with that, nervous energy and emotions. I thought that they played with poise and they were able to show what they can do for our team."