San Diego Gulls Weekly Report
By Greg Johnson
The week that was for the Ducks top minor league club in San Diego.
The San Diego Gulls are going to have to start attending church instead of playing hockey on Sundays. It’s no wonder the team scheduled zero Sunday home games this season.
The Record
Fear not! The Gulls actually took five of a possible six points this week. They won their two home games against the San Antonio Rampage (Colorado Avalanche’s affiliate) and Ontario (LA Kings). Additionally, they came from three early goals ahead to lose in a shootout to the Stockton Heat (Calgary Flames).
Pacific Playoffs?
The worst team in the Pacific Division of the AHL has collected 51% of the available points. And that’s in an eight-team division. The competition is sturdy. But the Gulls remain in strong playoff position, holding second place in the division. In fact, they’re closer to the first place Tucson Roadrunners (Arizona Coyotes) than they are to third place Stockton. And they’re firmly in fourth place in the 15-team Western Conference. Start planning your late April trip South in between Ducks playoff games.
Standouts
Kevin Roy lit it up last week…again. He led the team with 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists). He’s noticeable every time he hits the ice. If he was two inches taller, he’d already be wearing a low number for the Ducks. And we’d know if Paul Kariya’s number 9 will be retired soon too. Instead, Roy is a treat in America’s Finest City.
Marcus Pettersson has made a mark in sheltered minutes up with the parent club. But down in the AHL, Andy Welinski is lighting it up. The 24-year-old puck-moving defenseman led the team in goals last week with three. He added an assist to tie Jacob Larsson for the lead among blue-liners with four points. These two will be making their marks in Anaheim soon. Especially since the two fossils on the Ducks back line (Bieksa is 36, and Beauchemin is 37) are unrestricted free agents at the end of this season.
Top Stopper
Reto Berra and Kevin Boyle both played last week. But Berra won both of his games, stopping 67 of 71 shots. That’s a 0.944 save percentage. And it included a shutout of San Antonio. Berra had a goals against average under 2.00 last week.
PIMS
When a guy like Mike Liambas plays all three games in a week, you fully expect him to lead the team in penalty minutes. But Liambas had a clean rap sheet last week, and even added a goal for good measure. We might need to make sure he didn’t just change jerseys with scoring forward Corey Tropp. Tropp even had a Gordie Howe hat trick against San Antonio Tuesday. He was the epitome of Gulls hockey. The right wing led the team with 21 penalty minutes last week. I guess he needed some alone time.
Is He coming Back?
Gulls Grad Marcus Pettersson was not slated to play significant time in the NHL this season. He’s a difference maker for the Gulls. But Pettersson has also made a difference for the Ducks, allowing Anaheim Ducks coach Randy Carlyle to improve his defensive pairings. Not only is Pettersson keeping both Kevin Bieksa and Francois Beauchemin off of the ice in the same game. He has also allowed Carlyle to pair puck moving defensemen Cam Fowler and Brandon Montour together. As a result, we may not see Pettersson back in the AHL this season.
Games This Week
The Gulls have three more games this week. Tuesday, they host the Cleveland Monsters (Columbus Blue Jackets) for Taco Tuesday at the San Diego Sports Arena. Friday, they will travel to Ontario (Kings) to be with their pleasant fans. This is the biggest game of the week, not only because these two teams hate each other, but because the Reign are only two points shy of the Gulls. Finally, Saturday the Gulls continue north to see the Bakersfield Condors (Edmonton Oilers). Check back next week and see how our Gulls did.