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The San Diego Gulls played well enough to win Wednesday night, but fell 3-2 at home to the Ontario Reign. It was a lesson learned for a hockey club navigating the early portion of a long season.
The Gulls (2-2-1-0) head to Tucson on Friday for two games against the Roadrunners (2-2-0-0) with hopes of building on the season’s first two weeks. Coach Dave Manson mostly likes what he’s seen from his club so far.
“I thought it was evenly played in the first,” Manson said following Wednesday’s loss. “They had some penalties, we built some momentum, knocked on the door a bit but couldn’t find the back of the net.
Then in the second period we were in the penalty box, and that kind of zapped our momentum and fed their offense. (In) the third period, we got the game back where we wanted it.
We were able to apply some pressure. We ran out of time.
We had a lot of shots blocked and couldn’t find a way through.” The Gulls will play without center Roger McQueen, who was called up by the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday and made his NHL debut that night. But even without the rookie, the Gulls should have the requisite firepower.
Eighteen skaters have put their names on the scoresheet so far this season, with 13 of them having multiple points. That suggests a hockey team that can score from all angles, and those numbers should increase with an improved power play.
The Gulls have shown a knack for the defense pushing the pack and creating scoring chances, the way Manson wants his team to play. Converting defense to offense and cashing in on the power play will be keys going forward.
“It’s the way the modern game is played,” said defenseman Matt Basgall, who scored a first-period goal Wednesday night off a pretty assist from Lucas Pettersson. “You want to be a five-man unit on offense.
It’s fun for our defensemen to join in too. The coaches have been harping on that a lot this year, and you know if the pucks don’t get through, they are usually coming back at you.
So it’s important to at least get the puck through the first layer. I was lucky enough to do that, and it found the back of the net.” An area the Gulls must improve upon is a power play unit that is 3-for-22 so far this season, which ranks 23rd in the AHL.
Manson and assistant coach Kelly Buchburger, who runs special teams, have stressed the need for better puck movement and getting bodies to the front of the opposing net.
T he Gulls netted a power-play goal Wednesday night on a sequence that involved Pettersson and Matthew Phillips finding Yegor Sidorov for his first goal of the season. It was the kind of puck movement and aggressiveness Manson wants to see from his club this weekend in Tucson.
“That was nice,” Manson said. “You feel the power play has been knocking on the door, so It’s nice to get one, and hopefully that lightens the pressure a bit.
But the power play is something that you need rolling if you are gonna have success in this league.”
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