San Diego Drops Game to Ontario
October 22, 2022 – American Hockey League (AHL) – San Diego Gulls News Release
The San Diego Gulls fell 2-1 to the Ontario Reign in the club’s Home Opener at Pechanga Arena San Diego. All-time, the Gulls are 3-5-0-0 in home-opening contests and are now 1-2-0-0 in the in the 2022-23 regular season.
Rocco Grimaldi scored the lone goal for San Diego, netting his first goal in a Gulls sweater with a power-play tally at 16:14 of the third period. Grimaldi posted a team-high 11 shots and has 1-2=3 points in his first two games with the Gulls.
Nikolas Brouillard and Glenn Gawdin both assisted on the on the play. Brouillard is tied for the lead among AHL blueliners in assists and points (2-4=6). He leads San Diego in points and assists and is tied for the team lead in goals. Gawdin has opened the season with 2-3=5 points in three games, extending his regular-season scoring streak to five games (dating back to 4/20/22 with STK), collecting 3-4=7 points in that stretch. He is second in points among Gulls team leaders.
For the first time in team history, the Gulls were awarded a penalty shot in their Home Opener (last: Bryce Kindopp vs Justus Annunen; goal; May 15, 2021 @ COL). Blake McLaughlin took the shot for San Diego, going scoreless in the first penalty shot of his AHL career.
Lukas Dostal made a season-high 34 saves on 36 shots in his third start of the season.
Tonight’s announced attendance was 9,398.
The Gulls continue their home-and-home series against the Reign tomorrow, Oct. 22 at 6 p.m. PT at Toyota Arena.
POSTGAME QUOTES
San Diego Gulls
Head Coach Roy Sommer
On the loss to Ontario:
I’ll tell you what, we ran into a hell of a goalie. The people that came tonight got to witness a goaltending battle. I think we had 46, 47 shots on net, probably 25 scoring chances and only one went in. We hit a couple of posts. It wasn’t for a lack of effort or the way we played. Hell of an entertaining hockey game, I’ll tell you that.
On the team’s improved discipline:
We talked about that. We said if we’re going to get seven or eight minors against us, we’re not going to have a chance against this team. They live on the power play. We had a few we had to kill. We had one full power play and we scored on it. You know, the other ones were 10 seconds or whatever. They would take a penalty or we would take a penalty. Special teams wasn’t it; it was five-on-five and we just had a hard time finishing. We hit a couple of posts. That was a hockey game.
On his impressions of the game:
I would say that if we play like that, we’re going to win a hell of a lot more than we’re going to lose.
Defenseman Josh Healey
On the tightness of the game:
It was pretty crazy. I mean, we had great fans tonight for the Home Opener. The boys played well, we had lots of chances, ran into a hot goalie. Credit to him, but I mean we had our chances. It was good game and we’ll be ready tomorrow.
On Ontario netminder Pheonix Copley’s goaltending:
I think so. I mean, he’s still human, we can still beat him, but he had a lot of things going right for him. We had lots of shots. It was just one of those night where we couldn’t find one in the back of the net.
On what the team needs to improve on moving into tomorrow:
Honestly, we played pretty well. We had lots of chances. We could have tightened up a few things in the (defensive) zone, but overall, on the offensive side, we did a great job moving pucks up. We had lots of chances and we’ve just got to find the back of the net tomorrow.
On if the team succeeded in taking less penalties and winning puck battles:
Definitely. We weren’t killing all night like we had been in previous games, which was good. We played pretty well in the (defensive) zone. We had a couple lapses and that obviously led to some goals, but for the most part, we played well and like I said, we’ll be ready tomorrow.
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