PREVIEW: Gulls Road Trip Continues Tonight In Stockton
Jan 19, 2022By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls kicked off their road trip with a 4-2 win over the San Jose Barracuda, but there’s no time for a pit stop as the team prepares to take on the Pacific Division leading Stockton Heat tonight (6:30 p.m., PT; TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
The Gulls are 1-3-0-0 this season against the Heat after earning a 4-1 victory on Jan. 7. to improve to 20-24-4-3 all-time against Stockton (8-13-2-2 on the road). Bryce Kindopp (1-1=2) and Brayden Tracey (1-1=2) powered the Gulls past the Heat in their last meeting 12 days ago and pace the club in production during the season series with 1-3=4 points and 2-1=3 points, respectively.
"It’s going to be a tough game," Gulls center Benoit-Olivier Groulx said. "I remember the first two games we played against Stockton. It was a fast-paced game. Obviously, they have one of the best teams in the league, if not the best team so we’re going to have to be prepared. We need a better start than we had today, but I think we’re ready. We had a great game against them at home last time and I think if we do that again, we’re going to be fine."
Kindopp also scored last night against the Barracuda (1-0=1) and has 2-2=4 points in his last five games. He played a major role in helping the Gulls to back-to-back wins and to the standings points in four of their last five contests (3-1-1-0).
The same goes for Trevor Carrick, who scored his second goal in as many games (2-1=3) while Alex Limoges followed suit for his first goal streak of the season (2-0=0). Additionally, Hunter Drew earned his seventh assist to establish a career high in both assists and in total points (6-7=13).
Drew was in like company as Groulx's multi-point effort against the Barracuda (1-1=2) extended his goal and point streaks to a career-high three games (3-1=4).
"It’s fun to see," Gulls assistant coach Daniel Jacob said of his team's recent play. "They get rewarded. They had a good stretch the last few games. They have a really good opportunity to play, to log some minutes. For them it’s really to do it shift in and shift out the right way. Like I said, we had a slow start as a team, they were part of it, but we found our legs as the game went on. It’s always fun to see guys get rewarded for some hard plays."
The Heat enter tonight with a 22-6-2-1 record, and their last game ended in a 4-1 win over the Tucson Roadrunners. Glenn Gawdin had a multi-goal game (2-0=2) while Matthew Phillips contributed a multi-point effort (1-1=2) and extended his point streak to five games (4-4=8).
Phillips is also ranks tied for ninth in the American Hockey League with 13 goals and ninth with 13-17=30 points.
Rookie netminder Dustin Wolf ranks first among AHL netminders with a .931 save percentage and second with a 2.07 goals-against average.
The Heat’s overall and home penalty kills are also ranked first in the AHL, while the team’s overall power play is ranked 10th.
"They have a really good team overall, older team, mature team," Jacob said. "So we need to make sure we stay out of the box, We’ll discuss that, we’ll address that and make sure it doesn’t happen. But at the same time we want to make sure that we play hard within our structure. So we need to walk that line."