Gulls Fall To Barracuda
Mar 9, 2021The San Diego Gulls opened a two-game road trip with a 4-2 loss to the San Jose Barracuda at Solar4America Ice at San Jose.
Andrew Poturalski collected a pair of assists to maintain his league leading pace with 12 on the year and is now riding a two-game assist streak (0-3=3). Poturalski leads the Gulls in scoring (14) and ranks second in league scoring, and now has 11 points in his last eight games (1-10=11).
“Well you know you can talk about the end but I think the start sticks out for me,” said Kevin Dineen. “They scored early and we’re chasing the game from there. It’s an issue for us this year and that was a quick one. Our first period solidified from there and I liked our push at the end, but the trick is not to put ourselves in that situation.”
San Jose wasted no time getting on the scoreboard after winning the opening faceoff. Barracuda’s Noah Gregor took the puck into the Gulls zone and snuck a quick shot past Dostal to give San Jose the lead 11 seconds into the contest.
The score marked the fastest goal ever scored by an opposing team in club history, surpassing the previous record of 21 seconds by Freddie Hamilton of the Stockton Heat on February 24, 2016.
The second period was more of the same for the Gulls as San Jose added two more goals make it a 3-0 game withing the first five minutes of the middle frame.
Gregor and Frederik Handemark connected for the first of the two quick second-period goals 2:28 into the second period. Handemark took a pass from Gregor and one-timed it into the Gulls net to double the lead.
Jayden Halbgewachs picked up San Jose’s third goal just 2:13 after Handemark’s goal on an impressive move that sliding the puck past Lukas Dostal for his fourth goal of the season.
San Diego received some relief and cut into San Jose’s lead when Kodie Curran scored on the power play with 46 seconds remaining in the second period. Sam Carrick started the play at the point, waiting for a passing lane to open. He found Curran who fired a one-timed shot past Alexei Melnichuk from the top of the faceoff circle for his third goal of the season.
Tempers flared and Jeffery Viel dropped the gloves with Keegan Lowe for the second fight of the night providing a bit of a spark for San Diego.
After a slashing minor on San Jose’s Jayden Halbgewachs, the Gulls pulled within one score. Andrew Poturalski, who assisted on San Diego’s first goal, made a quick pass to Carrick who redirected the puck into the net for a power-play tally with 3:24 left in the game.
The Gulls captain has six points (2-4=6) in his last five games and is tied for the team lead with five goals.
“Just getting back to the basics and making crisp plays,” said Poturalski on tonight’s success on the power play. “I think we got away from that a little bit. We’re getting back to just making plays and using our skill to our advantage. Just finding guys out there and moving the puck quickly, that’s how you beat a penalty kill like there’s. We just have to do basic things and find guys in the open spots.”
The Gulls created a couple of opportunities for themselves to tie the game, but after losing possession in the offensive zone, former Gulls captain Jaycob Megna sealed the game with an empty-net goal with 31 seconds remaining.
San Diego is back at it tomorrow as they visit Bakersfield for a 6 p.m. contest at Mechanics Bank Arena to finish a back-to-back set.
“That’s the beauty of pro hockey,” added Poturalski. “You get to go right back at it tomorrow. Bakersfield’s a good team, they have a lot of good depth and a lot of older players who have been in the league that are good players. It will be a good test for us and hopefully we’ll be ready to go.”