PREVIEW: No Love Lost When Gulls, Roadrunners Meet On Valentine’s Day
Feb 14, 2023By AJ Manderichio/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego open a three-game homestand tonight when they host the Tucson Roadrunners in a Valentine’s Day matchup at Pechanga Arena San Diego (7 p.m. PT; TV: AHL TV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
There certainly is no love lost between the two Pacific Division rivals. After dropping their first three meetings against the Roadrunners, the Gulls nabbed their first win of the season series on December 23, a 6-2 victory at the Tucson Convention Center. Pavol Regenda led the way with two goals while Brayden Tracey, Hunter Drew and Nikolas Brouillard posted multi-assist performances.
"Well, they have some good offense," Gulls head coach Kris Sparre said. "They're good offensive team, so we got to be really good defensively. I think what we're noticing is we need to establish more of a forechecking pressure so that we can get in the offensive zone and create offense. We're not getting enough offense in the last few games. We think it stems from our forecheck. I think if we can get that going, maybe disrupt their breakouts a little bit more, spend a little bit more time in the offensive zone we'll have some success."
San Diego executed a similar plan last weekend, earning a 2-1 overtime win over the American Hockey League’s newest team, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, on Friday, Feb. 10. Limiting one the league’s best offenses to just one goal – a power-play tally – the Gulls played a physical, high-tempo game and forced extra time on a Regenda goal in the third period. Rocco Grimaldi delivered the decisive blow in overtime, beating Joey Daccord to lead San Diego to victory.
The team failed to capitalize on the momentum the next night in Bakersfield, losing 6-1 to the Condors. Dmitry Osipov scored the game’s first goal, but a quick response from Bakersfield tied the game 10 seconds later. The Condors took over from there, scoring five more across regulation to skate away with the victory.
"Well, we performed actually very well against Coachella," Osipov said. "Obviously, got the win against the one of the best teams in the league and that definitely felt good. Definitely got the spirit up a little bit. Then kind of, you know, shot ourselves in the foot in (the) Bakersfield game. Obviously, it was a kind of a tough road trip. You know, going back after right after Coachella game showing up at two in the morning. But kind of, you know, (not) looking for excuses but everything comes down to us. We should have performed better, we should have kind of got a better start. Even though we scored the first goal, we kind of let them get better of us and let them roll around and then ended up what happened."
Key to success for San Diego is a strong start, something they made a point of emphasis in the win over Coachella.
"It's very important," Osipov explained. "I feel like it sets the tone for the entire game pretty much and and if you got the teams off guard, you definitely make them chase you instead of the other way around. I feel like we need to start better compared to like the last game or just overall, looking at the season. There’s games we've been lacking those like five or 10 minutes at the start, so we definitely should be able to kind of look at the previous games, should be able to start jumping them early."
These four-point games loom even larger as the teams battle for the chance to make the postseason. Tucson enters tonight in sixth place – four points ahead of the Condors – but losers of three straight games and four of their last five contests. The Roadrunners were outscored 13-3 in those three losses, including back-to-back defeats to the Abbotsford Canucks this weekend.
Michael Carcone, Tuscon’s representative at the AHL All-Star Classic, leads the charge for the desert birds. His 23-40=63 points in 41 games leads the league and is eight more than his closest challenger. Not surprisingly, Carcone also leads the league with 29 points on the man advantage. Cam Dineen provides offense from the blueline, entering the game among the leading defenseman with 4-29=33 points.
Despite the production from the duo, Tucson’s power play enters tonight in the bottom third of the AHL. It will face a stout San Diego penalty kill, one which enters at an 81.5 % success rate, sitting fourth in their division, eighth in the conference and tied for 12th in the league.