Gulls Fight Hard, But Cannot Complete Comeback
Oct 5, 2024By Austin Rush/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Gulls erase a 4-1 third period deficit but fall 5-4 in tonight’s preseason matchup with the Ontario Reign from Pechanga Arena San Diego.
Forward Pavol Regenda got the scoring started tonight when received a pass from Carson Meyer and buried a backhanded shot in tight, at 13:52 of the opening period.
Heading into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead, Ontario would go on to take a 3-1 lead with a trio of 2nd period goals coming from forwards Tate Singleton and Cater Savoie and defenseman Luke Rowe.
The Reign extended their lead to 4-1 with an early 3rd period goal from Singleton at 1:45 of the frame for his second goal of the night.
San Diego mounted their comeback 1:48 later when centerman Ryan Carpenter put home a loose puck out front on a delayed penalty. 1:49 later, forward Josh Lopina scored to pull the Gulls within one. Right winger Judd Caulfield slid a cross-ice pass to Lopina who was wide open on the backdoor to tap into a yawning cage. Defenseman Dillon Heatherington tallied the secondary assist. With 6:10 left in regulation, blueliner Roland McKweon fired home the equalizer on the power play. Carpenter secured his third point of the night with the primary assist while defenseman Rodwin Dionicio tallied his first point of the evening with the secondary helper.
"I mean, we were down two, so going into the third and to give up that fourth goal. But I think guys on the bench, as cheesy as it is, still believing, still trying to win your shift. Once you get one, and once you’ve got that four-on-four goal by [Josh Lopina], I think it gave us some momentum. We felt like we had a lot of time to tie it up, which we did," Carpenter said.
"As a group it's the first game together, but when you find a way to tie the game up and just sticking to the discipline and systems and reminding each other what we need to do, especially as the ice gets worse towards the end of the game and chippy. I mean, it stinks being on the losing end of things, but at the same time knowing in the back of our heads that if we are ever down we have to compete and maybe the skill to come back."
The contest wouldn’t remain tied for long as a Rowe fired a shot from the point that was tipped out front by Francesco Pinelli for the final goal of the night.
"There was a lot of character that we showed. I think as far as being able to play to an identity and be difficult to play against, I thought there was a lot of really good moments," Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane said. "There were so many great teachable moments too. For a lot of our first-year guys, there's specific errors that are easy fixes. I thought we saw a lot of really good things from our team today, and plenty that we can build on moving into next week."
San Diego now sets their sight on Toronto for next week’s season opening series against the Marlies.