Apr 9, 2022
By Paige Burnell/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls fell 5-2 to the Abbotsford Canucks tonight at Abbotsford Centre, despite two comeback attempts fueled by a high-flying Gulls power play.
The loss, San Diego’s second consecutive regulation setback, bumped the Gulls down to seventh in the Pacific Division standings. They hold the final Calder Cup Playoff spot in the division, sitting 12 points ahead of the Tucson Roadrunners.
“We gave ourselves a chance tonight so I think we had a slow start again, but we battled back,” Gulls assistant coach Max Talbot said. “We showed some character tonight, which is very good, and we competed until the end against a very good team as Abbotsford has been playing well. So, for us, there’s some good stuff for us to take out of this game.”
Hunter Drew scored both power-play goals for 2-2=4 points on the man advantage in his last two games. Both Alex Limoges (0-2=2) and Lucas Elvenes (0-2=2) earned multi-assist efforts.
San Diego netted eight power-play goals on 22 opportunities in their last three games, operating at an impressive 36.4% success rate.
“Well, I think just having the two stable units helps because guys can create chemistry between each other,” Talbot said. “We studied Abbotsford quite a bit. You know, when you have a week that you have time to prepare and practice, I think the guys were all on the same page and it’s clicking right now.”
Ashton Sautner helped the Canucks to their win with a multi-point effort (1-2=3) while John Stevens revived his role as the Gulls’ personal poltergeist, earning an assist for a team-leading 4-5=9 points against them this season.
The Gulls did not have an ideal start as Jarid Lukosevicius put the Canucks ahead 45 seconds into the game with his ninth goal of the season.
Sautner threw the puck on net from the blueline, resulting in a rebound Lukosevicuis tipped in as he loitered in Lukas Dostal’s crease.
Early goals are…
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