Gulls Drop Rivalry Matchup With Reign
Oct 22, 2022By Brett Pickler/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls fell to the Ontario Reign 5-1 and drop the series against their rivals at Toyota Arena.
The Gulls entered tonight’s matchup looking to avenge their 2-1 loss on home ice the night before.
Not wanting to play from behind again, the Gulls attacked early. At the 3:26 mark of the period, Brayden Tracey silenced the Ontario crowd by stealing the puck from netminder Matthew Villalta behind the net and scored on a wide-open wrap around. This gave San Diego the early advantage in this heated matchup.
The Gulls continued to control the flow of play throughout the early stages of the game, until the Reign converted on a broken play, with Austin Wagner tying the game at 8:47 of the first. For the rest of the period, both teams battled hard, but could not find any cracks in their opponent’s game.
In the second, San Diego looked to push the pace early and continue off the first-period success. The Gulls started the period with a high level of intensity and, for a moment, took the lead courtesy of a Blake McLaughlin redirection. However, the referees deemed that he kicked the puck into the net, resulting in no goal. This would be the turning point of the game.
Following the disallowed goal, Ontario took control of the game, scoring three times to take a commanding 4-1 lead. Rasmus Kupari started the run, giving Ontario the lead at 4:15 of the middle frame. Jacob Doty and Aidan Dudas added on, doubling the Reign advantage halfway through the game.
"We gave them too much time," Tracey said. "They’ve got a lot of skilled players over there, a lot of players who can make plays. They’ve got a deep core. We’ve got to be first on pucks. It sounds simple, but it creates a lot for them and opens up a lot of ice so I think we’ve just got to be first on pucks and battle a lot harder."
Frustration continued to grow in the third period for the Gulls, as they failed to find the back of the net, despite receiving two power plays and outshooting the Reign.
"Power play - it’s a fine line," Gulls assistant coach Kris Sparre said. "We hit the post there on that one right off the faceoff and you know, you’re an inch away from not having this conversation. It’s one of those things that goals, they’re sporadic - they come and go, but we certainly have some work to do in that area based on this past game."
Ontario would eventually convert on a power-play goal by Samuel Fagemo to ice the game.
"It’s discouraging, but it’s early in the season," Sparre said. "We know that we have a good group of guys in there that are going to respond really well to this. Sometimes, a little bit of adversity, it ends up paying off in the long run, but yeah, a disallowed goal, a post, things like that. Sometimes the hockey gods aren’t on your side and we hope they’ll be with us on Wednesday."