PREVIEW: Gulls, Barracuda Open Four-Game Set Tonight
Nov 19, 2021By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
On the road again.
The San Diego Gulls head north to SAP Center to face their Pacific Division rival, the San Jose Barracuda, in their first matchup of the season tonight (7 p.m., PT; TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
"We’ve played a couple of the same teams for the past ten games so it’ll be nice for a little fresh air," Gulls defenseman Nikolas Brouillard said.
The Gulls are 34-18-4-1 all-time versus Barracuda and hold a record of 16-11-2-0 in San Jose. Friday’s game will be the first in a set of in set of back-to-back games this weekend, as well as the first of four consecutive games against San Jose.
This season, the Gulls are 3-6-1-0, but this record is not indicative of their performance as of late. San Diego earned points in three of the last four games (2-1-1-0) in their most recent homestand.
The Gulls attribute the consistent increase in the quality of their game and the points they’ve stacked in the win column to sticking to their intense practices and finer attention to detail.
"You cannot expect to show up in games and if you had a soft week of practice and turned the switch on and expect good results," Gulls assistant coach Daniel Jacob said. "We need to make sure we work hard in practice, work the right way and it looks hard, but it’s the same principle as a game. You want to be able to sustain that hard work for sixty minutes, right? It starts in our practices and that’s why it looks hard, but at the same time, it’s just a normal week for us."
The Gulls didn't earn any points in their most recent game, a 4-2 loss to the Bakersfield Condors on Saturday, Nov. 13, but Jacob Perreault’s hard work in practice led to a spectacular showing of skill as he scored both of the team's goals for the first multi-goal game of his career.
One of these goals became the content of several highlight reels as Perreault pulled off a "Michigan", better known as a lacrosse-style goal, past Bakersfield netminder Olivier Rodrigue.
If that feat wasn’t impressive enough, the right wing scored on the man-advantage to net his third power-play goal in four games.
Perreault enters tonight riding a career-best seven-game, collecting 5-6=11 points during that time. Perreault’s string of points is the longest streak put together by a San Diego Gull under 20-years-old.
He leads the Gulls in goals (6), assists (7) and points (13).
Brouillard also enters tonight with 1-4=5 points in his last five games. earned
“I mean, we just have to work hard," Brouillard said. "Put the details, the little details are going to make a big difference. Have maybe a little more maturity, having to know when we lead how to play and when we’re trailing how to play. I think that’s what bit us last game, we were winning by one and I thought our third period was a little bit sluggish. We just have to play with a little more maturity in our game and I think we’re just going to be fine."
The Barracuda are 5-4-0-1 this season and are on a two-game winning streak, their most recent a 4-3 victory over the Condors on Wednesday. Joachim Blichfeld powered San Jose, collecting two power-play goals.
This game may be a battle of special teams, as both clubs are currently boasting prolific power plays. The two teams enter with power-play units ranked within the top five of the American Hockey League.
"We have a plan," Jacob said. "Everything is black or white, there is no grey. They know what’s expected and we need to meet those demands, right? We need to work hard."
At home, the Barracuda’s man-advantage is ranked second with a 34.8% conversion rate. San Diego enters with the league's best road power play, entering tonight at 33.3%.
Rookie Scott Reedy is finding early success. He collected two goals and an assist in San Jose's win over Bakersfield and enters tonight third among all AHL rookies in goals (6) and sits in the top 10 in points (6-4=10).
Noah Gregor leads the Barracuda attack with 408=12 points. He collected three assists in the win over the Condors on Wednesday.
For the Gulls, finding success starts with their game.
"Today and even earlier this week, there’s a few things we need to fix, there’s a few things we needed to address, work on and that’s what we’re doing," Jacob said. "It’s still early in the season, we need to make sure that our bases are covered alright, we’re doing things the right way and that’s what we’re focusing on now."