SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Gulls’ third period collapse leads to a 6-3 defeat to the Abbotsford Canucks on Wednesday at Pechanga Arena.
Abbotsford extends its win streak to 11 games, while also finishing 10-1 in the month of March. The Gulls entered the night winning three consecutive home games against San Jose, Tucson and Calgary.
Even with tonight’s loss, the postseason is still in the realm of possibility for the Gulls, but this is certainly a game where the team wished they could have back, especially when they entered the final period up 3-2.
“It’s an unfortunate feeling that we have right after this game," Gulls’ assistant coach Kris Sparre said postgame. "We’re also happy with the progress we’ve made and who knows, a lot of hockey left to play.”
Before Gulls’ Stian Solberg sniped his second goal in the AHL, the first period was mostly in Abbotsford’s control as they were the quicker and the more aggressive team, which allowed them to get more high danger scoring chances on goaltender Ville Husso.
The Gulls flipped a switch and completely took over during the second period. San Diego outshot the Canucks 13-4 and were on the man advantage for almost the entire second half of the period.
Gulls’ forward Judd Caulfield found his 10th goal of the season and gave his team their first lead of the contest, deflecting Owen Lindmark’s shot, who earned his first career AHL point on the play. San Diego, however, gave up a short-handed goal on a 2v1 rush with a little under five minutes left in the period.
“I think when we found success, we’ve been stingy,” Gulls’ defenseman Roland McKeown said. “It felt like in that third (period) was just kind of the opposite of that.”
After Abbotsford was penalized for interference, Gulls Justin Bailey recorded his 19th goal of the season with 13 seconds left in the period.. On the greasy score, forward Jan Myšák (21) tried a wrap-around on the initial chance and was stuffed by Canucks’ goalie Nikita Tolopilo, but Bailey followed up with the rebound and slammed the puck through.
All the momentum the Gulls had entering the final period was wiped away after giving up four unanswered goals. The team was also outshot 12-6 and didn’t post a shot-on-goal until a little over 11 minutes in the period.
“I think it was some decision making that kind of snuck up on us,” Sparre said. “ I think there was a lot of hidden mistakes… Giving breakaway, 2v0’s, we felt like we didn’t deserve to be up the goal that we were.”
“We kind of let their goals happen by making big mistakes in key moments,” McKeown said. “A great team like that is gonna bury on high end chances like they had. You can’t give them that many.”
It’s 20 minutes of hockey that the team wants to forget about and put it behind them. It’s a must considering the Gulls have a four game road trip coming up including a Friday and Sunday showdown against the Iowa Wild.
“It’s unfortunate, but we go back to the leadership, you back to the locker room,” Sparre said. “We got guys that are going to respond, we know that at this point in the season. We’ll expect a big night in Iowa.”
A positive note, the Gulls did have a fantastic second period and showed flashes of the high-power offense they have when clicking on all cylinders.
The other new arrivals, Carsen Twarynski (8,9) and Ian Moore (3), earned an assist on Solberg’s goal earlier in the game. Twarynski, later, earned another on Caulfield’s deflection.
Twarynski now has seven points (3 G, 4 A) in seven games, while Moore has four points in four games. Also, Bailey now has eight points in the last 11 games.
Husso snapped his six game winning streak in net, finishing with 17 saves and an 0.773 SV%.
With the Gulls and Roadrunners losing on Wednesday, San Diego is still trailing Tucson by five points for the final playoff spot.
“It’s one game at a time,” Sparre said. “We dropped one tonight, so the sky isn’t falling. We pick ourselves back up, and we get right back to work tomorrow.”