San Diego Loses 7-3 to Abbotsford
October 29, 2022 – American Hockey League (AHL) – San Diego Gulls News Release
The San Diego Gulls fell 7-3 to the Abbotsford Canuks tonight in the first of back-to-back games at Abbotsford Centre. The loss dropped San Diego’s overall record to 2-4-0-0 and 1-3-0-0 on the road.
Benoit Olivier-Groulx earned a pair of assists (0-2=2) for his second multi-point effort of the season and his third helper (0-3=3) in two games.
Axel Andersson scored his first goal of the season – and San Diego’s first of the game – at 7:39 of the second period. The defenseman has 1-2=3 points in his last four games.
Austin Strand scored his first goal in a Gulls sweater at 14:05 of the middle frame. He has points in consecutive games (1-1=2), marking the first point streak for the defenseman since he earned 0-2=2 assists in two games from Oct. 19-22, 2021 with the Ontario Reign.
Brayden Tracey netted his third goal and first power-play tally of the season 3:29 into the third period, tying defenseman Nikolas Brouillard for the team lead in goals (3).
Danny O’Regan earned an assist on the play to claim the team lead in assists (0-6=6). Rocco Grimaldi recorded the second helper on the goal for 2-5=7 points in five games, ranking second on the Gulls in points.
The Gulls have scored at least one power-play goal in five of their six games this season and two power-play goals on three occasions. At the conclusion of tonight’s game, the Gulls are first in the AHL’s Western Conference and ranked tied for second in the league with eight power-play goals.
Lukas Dostal started for the Gulls, recording the loss after allowing four goals on 10 shots in 20 minutes. Olle Eriksson Ek came on in relief at the start of the second period, stopping 17-of-20 shots in 40 minutes.
The Gulls will close out their weekend series against the Canuks in Abbotsford tomorrow, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. PT.
POSTGAME QUOTES
SAN DIEGO GULLS
Head coach Roy Sommer:
On the loss to Abbotsford:
I thought the first period, we just got out-skated. We had some breakdowns, and when we did have a breakdown, and they got an opportunity, it was in the net. Just a lot of bad details tonight, I can tell you that. Just looking at the goals against, we just weren’t ready to go when the puck was dropped. It was their home opener; you try and talk to them that you have to weather the first five minutes. We didn’t do a good job of that.
On avoiding frustration when mistakes become goals:
That’s kind of how it went tonight. The other night, the special teams won us the game. I think we had one power-play goal tonight and two PK (penalty kill) goals against us tonight. The bottom line is, structurally we were out to lunch.
On how the team’s forecheck helped produce offense:
That’s something we’re looking at right now. As a coaching staff, we’ll go home and look at the game and try to come up with a better game plan tomorrow than we did today. That was the big thing; I think we changed things up a little bit in the second period and started driving guys to the net and everything opened up for us. Actually, we were going pretty good; I thought we had pretty good momentum on our side and we gave up that shorthanded goal and it kind of took the wind out of our sails.
On moving into a rematch tomorrow night:
I hate to say it, because it’s not really what you want to talk about, but there were a lot more negatives in that game than there were positives. The big thing is, it’s a quick turnaround, get an opportunity to redeem ourselves and go from there.
Center Benoit-Olivier Groulx:
On the loss to Abbotsford:
Clearly, they were more ready than us. They started the game really strong. They competed really hard, they won a lot of 50-50 battles on the boards, and that led them to good offense, and they capitalized on most of them. You have to give credit to them; they came ready. We just have to regroup, look at some video and come way harder than we did today.
On improving the team’s start:
Right now, I think we all know those are big points. It’s games within our division. We have to be ready every single night. I think tomorrow is a must-win for us. It builds a lot of character when you get destroyed like that. I think our group needs that. We’re going to come back stronger and I think it’s going to go our way tomorrow.
On how the team found success in the second period:
In the period, we were talking, and we need to be a bit more physical in the first period. When we were physical in the second period, we created a lot of turnovers and that’s how we scored our goals. We didn’t do that in the third period. Tomorrow, it’s going to be our main point in our game plan and if we execute it, I think it’s going to be a different game for sure.
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