San Diego, California. With a long way off between games but still looking to keep focused as they came off a big 4-1 win over the Barracuda in their most recent encounter, the San Diego Gulls hoped to get another win albeit with some defensive adversity.
Once again the forward lines stayed intact for the most part. The top six stayed as is – with only Herman Traff and Nathan Gaucher swapping places on the bottom two lines.
The recall of Travis Mitchell still hurt as an injury to Konnor Smith meant a recall of Jake Lee from Tulsa who either didn’t arrive in time or was not able to go as Travis Howe was thrown in on defense. The Ducks put the right shot veteran Nick Jensen on waivers earlier in the day so help would potentially be coming.
Laurent Brossoit was called up with no injury to either Ducks goalie – but as a message to a team that was struggling to prevent goals against so that meant a recall of Tomas Suchanek. Damian Clara was given the start with Suchanek backing up.
First Period:
Starting with the Carpenter line the Gulls started out strong, coming very close on a chance in the crease but Carpenters crease splitting pass did not connect.
With the Silver Knights starting to pressure in the Gulls zone an inadvertent stick in the skates off the face-off saw Yegor Sidorov whistled for tripping. The minor was killed without much trouble as San Diego were giving no quarter in their zone and prevented Henderson from really getting set. They did manage two in-close chances on Clara which were a little suspect but overall it was a good kill.
Henderson steadily grew momentum – taking advantage of shifts when Howe was out on defense to pressure and keep possession in the Gulls zone. With San Diego creating some chances in the Henderson zone a break the other way gave them the lead as Jackson Hallum beat Jet Woo to the backdoor on the rush and an Alexander Holtz pass was tipped home. 1-0 Henderson.
Sniffing blood in the water the Silver Knights went right back on the attack and made it 2-0 less than two minutes later as once again a back door pass to the backdoor rung off the post but the rebound was found and buried behind Clara before he could react. 2-0 Henderson.
It was all San Diego could do to prevent the Silver Knights from getting another goal as they chased the puck for the next few minutes before thankfully getting some possession and pressure of their own to close out the period.
The Gulls heading to the first intermission down by two and needing to clean up their coverage in front off the rush. Shots were 22-11 Silver Knights after twenty minutes. The shot map showing how very one sided the first period was.
Second Period: Henderson Silver Knights 2 – San Diego Gulls 0
San Diego had an expected much better start to the second, carrying play and creating chances through the first three minutes but were still yet to register a shot despite the looks.
With a nice two on rush between Petersson and Traff going awry after the laters pass didn’t quite land for the one-timer, the puck still found its way on Traff’s stick seconds later after a failed clear and the big Swedish winger immediately sent it on net to surprise the Silver Knights goaltender. 2-1 Henderson.
San Diego poured on the pressure and came close just over a minute later when Anton Wahlberg found a rebound in front but could not elevate it and was denied.
Henderson responded with their top line and came close again with some swift passing and cycling around the Gulls zone with a shot that left a rebound near the edge of the net with Clara temporarily out of position but thankfully he got to the loose puck just in time.
The Officials had well and truly put away their whistles (letting an obvious high stick on Hamblin go, letting several icings go) but they elected to finally give the Gulls their first Power Play as Matthew Phillips was slashed coming through the neutral zone.
It was a game of firsts as right off the face-off the Gulls were able to execute the set-play. A face-off win back to Solberg that was one-timed to a waiting Lucas Pettersson on the right wall and his one-time blast was picture perfect for his first AHL goal. 2-2 tie game.
It was a battle of attrition for the next few minutes as teams battled for space and bodies started to fly with aplomb.
Time trickled to the final few seconds with the Gulls pressing and an under pressure Henderson clear went out on the full to give San Diego another Power Play with just ten seconds left in the period. Winning the face-off again they tried for the Solberg-Pettersson connection once again but the pass hit some debris en-route and could not connect as time expired on the frame,
San Diego fighting back to tie it up at two and force a winner takes all third period. Shots were 12-9 Gulls on the period and 31-23 Henderson overall.
Third Period: San Diego Gulls 2 – Henderson Silver Knights 2
Starting the third on the Power Play it was instantly evened up as James Hamblin was called for a debatable hooking infraction.
The Silver Knights had the majority of chances on the four on four and then held momentum as play returned to five on five but Anton Wahlberg lead the charge on his own, using his size, speed and poise to generate back to back rushes which ended in some great looks.
Keeping the pressure on the Gulls sent chance after chance on the Henderson net and came close on one occasion for what would have been another first as Ethan Procyzycn couldnt quite power a nice behind the net pass from Sean Farrell into the net.
The back and forth continued as Henderson started to respond once again but this time the Gulls were better at slowing their speed coming through the neutral zone to deny any kind of rush pass back-door opportunity.
Some nice hustle from Nico Myatovic lead to another Gulls Power Play as he was cross-checked from behind by Lukas Cormier. Henderson were wise to the set play this time and instantly pressured the Gulls off the face-off denying any open space or seam passes and the man advantage went begging.
Henderson rode the momentum from the kill and thought they had a tie-breaker off a tip in front but Clara appeared to have kept it out, despite the goal light behind him coming on. A rare AHL video replay (that we didn’t get to see on the broadcast) was quick to assess that it was indeed no goal.
Nico Myatovic was found guilty of slashing with less than three minutes left in the game and the Gulls faced a true test.
Similar to their opponents the Gulls were fierce off the draw and allowed no space for a set play or seam pass, keeping the Silver Knights to the perimeter and eventually killing off the penalty through some good old fashioned hard work.
Sixty minutes wasn’t enough and this one headed to the extra three on three session.
Overtime:
Starting with Wahlberg, Hamblin and Solberg – the Gulls originally did not have possession but an offside allowed them to regroup and gain possession off the next face-off. Stian Solberg taking the puck behind his net and surprising his checker with a quick bout of acceleration to gain speed and space coming through the neutral zone. Here is where he possibly should have pulled up and assessed the play but seeing that he did not appear to have any support with line-mates changing – he decided to pull off a one on one move which looked beautiful as did his attempt on net that followed but it was stopped. The resulting counter rush from Alexander Holtz ended the game as he pulled Clara across and slipped it five-hole. 3-2 Silver Knights win.
Post Game Notes:
Defensive Doubts 2 – 2 Hurt 2 Injured
As mentioned in the last games post game notes. With Travis Mitchell recalled to the Ducks the Gulls could not afford to lose another defender. Then we saw that Jake Lee had been recalled from Tulsa, meaning either something was afoot or someone was injured. As confirmed on the broadcast in the pre-game show for today’s game – Konnor Smith is indeed injured and is out for “some time” with an upper body injury. Given the last-minute recall it can be assumed the injury was suffered at practice.
Thankfully Nick Jensen was waived by the Ducks today and given his 2.25m cap hit I can’t see him being picked up so we should hopefully see him with the Gulls in tomorrows game against the Eagles. That is of-course if he reports. Speaking of which…
Minority (Failure To) Report
I saw someone post on a Facebook group that Cruz Lucius appears to have not reported to Tulsa. Looking at the Oilers stats page I cant find him being listed as having played a game. He was assigned almost a week ago – the same time Pitre was. Pitre managed to see action in three games (putting up three points to earn an instant recall) in that time. So either he is injured or became injured once he got down there. Or he didn’t show up at all. It would very sad if that is the case – I thought he had a really good rookie tournament and an OK preseason. It would be sad to see him wash out or demand a trade – particularly when he showed so much promise early on. Speaking of showing promise…
The Wahlberg Effect
Having had the Buffalo Sabers visit recently – I realise it is particularly painful to bring up “that trade” but I am here to give hope to Ducks fans. Anton Wahlberg is the real deal. I cannot say enough about how good he is and I could go on forever about how much he is a cut above. EVERY little thing he does is great. He uses his size and speed to great affect – leading every rush he can and he even showed some snarl in today’s game by getting into it with some average sized defenders after the whistle. I know it is probably best to take what I say about players at the AHL level with a grain of salt given sometimes those traits do not translate well to the NHL but I am so very very confident that this kid is going to be one of those ones that looks even better at the NHL level. He is always looking to make plays and you get the sense he is thinking the game a step or two ahead of his team-mates sometimes. Losing Zellweger was a tough pill to swallow but Wahlberg is ALREADY looking very good and Jayden Kurtz is a project but showed at rookie camp that he was already ahead in his development than Moore and LaCombe were post-draft.
2026-2027 Game 9: San Diego Gulls vs San Jose Barracuda
San Diego, California. After earning a split in Tucson and then learning a very harsh less…