Gulls Stopped By Condors
November 3, 2022 – American Hockey League (AHL) – San Diego Gulls News Release
The San Diego Gulls fell 3-2 to the Bakersfield Condors tonight at Mechanics Bank Arena, bringing San Diego’s overall record to 3-5-0-0 and 2-4-0-0 on the road.
In his American Hockey League debut, left wing Pavol Regenda scored his first AHL goal (and first as a Gull) at 3:11 of the third period. Regenda began the season with the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, recording two assists in five regular-season games.
Rocco Grimaldi pushed his point streak to a season-high four games with an assist on the play. The Rossmoor, California native has 2-4=6 points during the stretch and is averaging over a point-per-game (3-7=9) with San Diego. Grimaldi is also tied for the team lead in goals and tied for second on the team in points.
Danny O’Regan also recorded an assist in a fourth straight game, extending his streak and tying a career high with six assists (0-6=6) over that span (two additional times, last: 5.10.21 – 5.13.21 with Henderson). The center’s nine assists rank second among all AHL skaters and leads the Gulls. In addition, his 0-9=9 points tie him with Grimaldi for second on the team in points.
Benoit-Olivier Groulx scored his second goal of the season with 2:10 remaining in regulation, tallying 1-3=4 points over his last four contests.
Drew Helleson and Jacob Perreault both earned an assist, with Helleson registering his first point of the season.
Lukas Dostal stopped a season-high 42-of-45 shots in the loss. The netminder did not allow a goal for 74:01 minutes of play (69:15 minutes regulation) and made 54 consecutive saves from 11:35 of the second period in the Gulls’ last game on Oct. 29 to the Condor’s first goal 40 seconds into the third period tonight.
Gulls defenseman Jarod Hilderman made his AHL debut. The Kamsack, Saskatchewan native is a two-time NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey champion with the University of Minnesota-Duluth and went scoreless with two penalty minutes (PIM) in three games with the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL before signing his professional tryout with San Diego.
The Gulls were perfect on the penalty kill (2-for-2) in the contest, killing 18 of the opponents’ 19 power-play opportunities (94.7%) through their last four games, At the conclusion of tonight’s game, San Diego’s penalty kill ranks seventh in the AHL’s Western Conference and tied for eighth in the league with an 83.8% overall success rate (31-for-37).
The Gulls will return to Pechanga Arena San Diego for back-to-back games against the Milwaukee Admirals beginning Friday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m.
POSTGAME QUOTES
Gulls assistant coach Jason Clarke
On the loss to Bakersfield:
I just think they got on top of us real quick. They didn’t turn a lot of pucks over in the neutral zone, forced our d(efense) to turn and get on top of us pretty quickly. That was one of their keys for them, for sure.
On the play of goaltender Lukas Dostal:
He’s been our best player since training camp, to be honest with you. Without him in the last two games, it could be some different scores, there’s no doubt about it. He just comes to the rink every day, works hard, is an absolute consummate professional. He’s been our best player of the year so far.
On what the team can take from the loss:
We just have to compete. We play hard for one shift and take one shift off. Then play hard for one shift, then take one shift off. We need to start being way more consistent with our compete level, and that’s where it starts. It starts right from there.
Right wing Hunter Drew
On goaltender Lukas Dostal’s last two performances:
I mean, it’s unbelievable. It’s unbelievable for us as a group. For him, for some confidence. You know, we always believe in him; we knew he’d bounce back so it’s good to see.
On what the team didn’t do well against Bakersfield:
Just simplifying our game. They’re kind of 1-2-2 shutdown all over the ice, so I think the simpler we were, the more effective. Every time you come to Bakersfield, it’s kind of these weird, choppy games and we knew it was coming, but we just didn’t have an answer.
On Bakersfield’s ability to utilize play on the boards:
Like you said, there’s advantages when we’re at home at Pechanga (Arena) and you know, Bakersfield has theirs here. They’re practicing here every day with those boards and this ice and they’re getting some reads that obviously we’re not used to. They did a good job using it and we’ll do the same thing at home against them.
On the learning tools the team will take from this game:
It’s just sticking together a little bit. Sometimes, we get our heads down when they score. We have a resilient group, we’ve just got to show it. It’s pretty early in the year – we’ve got lots of time – but hopefully, it comes quick.
On the team’s push at the end of the game:
I think the big thing is honestly just desperation. Like I just said, it’s early in the year, but you can’t really let too many games slip away and when you see how tight this division is, you’ve just got to push through and push and push and push. Sometimes, you’ve got to be desperate so I think that should be our mindset moving forward as well.
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