The San Diego Gulls came up short in Saturday’s American Hockey League home season opener at Pechanga Arena, 4-3, to the visiting Henderson Silver Knights. But the 10,023 fans in attendance were treated to an exciting contest that will likely keep them coming back.
The Gulls, who are bidding for a return to the Calder Cup playoffs after a three-year absence, won their season opener, 5-0, at Coachella Valley on Oct. 10. It was a positive start.
But the schedule-maker wasn’t necessarily kind as the Gulls had a week off before hosting the Silver Knights, who came into the arena with three games already under their skates.
The sluggishness showed as the Nevada team took a 2-0 lead after the opening period to force the home team to expend valuable energy in a bid to play catch up.
But catch up the Gulls did, erasing the two-goal deficit on second-period goals by Tristan Luneau and Judd Caulfield to tie the Pacific Division matchup 2-2 midway through the second period. Luneau scored the Gulls’ first power play goal of the season at 2:45, assisted by Matthew Phillips and Sasha Pastujov. Caulfield tied the game at 9:42, assisted by newcomer Tim Washe and Yegor Sidorov.
The Silver Knights, the top developmental affiliate of the NHL Vegas Golden Knights, went back in front, 3-2, on a power play goal by Braeden Bowman at 14:06. The Gulls rallied again to knot the score, 3-3, on an electrifying goal by captain Ryan Carpenter with just 39 seconds left in the period.
Fans were buzzing and waiting for more in the third period.
But it seemed playing catch-up took its toll. Despite three power play opportunities in the period, including a two-man advantage in the final 1:09, the hosts were unable to complete a comeback against the Henderson goaltender.
The Gulls finished with a 10-7 edge in shots in the final period, 31-22 for the game, but finished one-for-six on the power play. Near-misses were on display rather than crowd-pleasing goals down the stretch.
Dylan Coughlan of the Silver Knights earned first star of the game with a goal and assist while Caullfield (second star) and Luneau (third star) also made the post-game three-star award list.
Tanner Laczynski scored the first goal for Henderson while Jonas Rondbjerg doubled the score.
“This was their fourth game of the year now, so they’re kind of more into the swing of things,” said San Diego netminder Ville Husso, who was credited with 18 saves. “I think our effort was good, but we can just execute a little bit better. Overall, I think there’s a lot of good things, but not our best.”
“Bottom line, you get down out of the gate 2-0, and you’re behind the eight ball, and good on us for being able to battle back in the second, not once, but twice, and then enter the third all square with an opportunity to win the game,” Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane said.
“And in the end, we’re a play short of being able to capitalize on that. I think when we go back and we look at it, we’re just going to feel like there’s a lot of opportunity for cleanup, and part of it could be a result of not playing for a little bit, but that part’s just an excuse. We can be better than that.”
Husso said the atmosphere of the home opener was “great.”
“There was a ton of energy the entire night,” he said. “Super fun atmosphere to play in and tons of fans … There’s a lot of juice in the building, and we definitely feel it behind us as we’re trying to make that comeback. Looking forward to keeping that going.”
“Fans were great,” McIlvane said. “The energy was good. The (new LED dasher) boards were cool. It’s a great hockey experience. On our side, we wish we were a little cleaner in some areas, and that’s what we’ll be working towards.”
The Gulls had less time to turn around for Wednesday’s home game against the defending division champion Colorado Eagles. After Wednesday’s game, the Gulls were off to Henderson for a weekend series Friday and Saturday before returning to host San Jose on Oct. 29.
