The home opener for the Gulls saw them ice a line-up without Andy Welinski who was served a 1 game suspension for a dangerous elbow in the previous game. Simon Benoit – who was placed in a 7th defender role for the previous game; was instantly thrust into big minutes as he took Welinski’s place – paired with Jacob Larsson. Sideroff, Shaw and newly added Pontus Aberg were also welcome new additions to the line-up.
San Diego appeared to have opening night jitters and were thoroughly outplayed in the first period – lucky to be down by only one goal after the first twenty minutes. As the second frame began they appeared to hold onto possession and were able to generate a few chances – but ultimately some mental lapses in their own zone lead to two quick Tuscon goals and they quickly found themselves in a 3-0 hole.
Somebody needed to step up to stem the flow, and that somebody was Logan Shaw – with 8.42 left in the period he took a loose puck near the left boards and fired it across to Aberg who calmly put it top corner on his back-hand to get the crowd alive and swing some momentum back.
Simon Benoit did all that he could to endear himself to both the local fan-base and his coach by playing out of his skin for the entire game. He took full advantage of the extra minutes he was given and made damn sure that Eakins will have a tough decision to make when Welinski comes back. Oh yeah and he did stuff like this.
The Road-Runners staved off the Gulls for the remainder of the 2nd period but the Gulls held most of the possession and the ice was slowly but surely tilting in San Diego’s favor.
After spending almost the entire period with sustained pressure in the Tucson zone, the Gulls finally made it a one goal game when Mitch Hults took a pass off the boards from Larsson and fired it from the top of the right circle – deftly tipped by Sam Carrick on the way to get the Gulls to 3-2. Carrick has stormed out as the team’s leading scorer in Kossila’s absence – with 4 points in 2 games he is also 10th overall in AHL scoring.
With under two minutes to go, Kevin Boyle made sure to keep San Diego in it when he turned aside the speeding Michael Bunting on a breakaway, and Logan Shaw almost managed to get the tying goal through sheer power of will, but alas the visitors held on for the win and the Gulls early mental lapses came back to haunt them.
Positives to take from this game – after giving up 3 goals it was all Gulls for the rest of the affair, and by game’s end shots were 44 to 32 in favor of the home team. If you remember- getting out-shot badly was something the Gulls loved to do and did so on a regular basis last season.
2023-2024 Game 72: San Diego Gulls at Coachella Valley Firebirds
In the final game of the season after surrendering a three goal lead to go down 5-4 in ove…