San Diego Gulls Weekly Report (March 13-19)

Pucks of a Feather’s weekly look at hockey down under. It’s our San Diego Gulls Report from contributor/season ticket holder Greg Johnson.

The Record

The Gulls were 2-1-0 last week. They would have been 3-0-0, but they stopped scoring 26 seconds into Saturday’s game after going up 2-0. Not a bad record for a team that scored 5 goals and gave up 4 while goalies were in net. They played a tight game Tuesday in their 2-1 win over the San Antonio Rampage (Colorado Avalanche affiliate). The Gulls won another hard-fought game 2-0 with an empty net goal over the Milwaukee Admirals (Nashville Predators). Then Saturday, they collapsed, losing 5-2 with two empty netters against the Bakersfield Condors (Edmonton Oilers). Four points in three games might get it done.

Playoffs

The Gulls have 11 games left this season. Their magic number is 19. Right now, they have 4 more points than the 5th place Stockton Heat (Calgary Flames). The Gulls have dropped to third place, behind the rival Ontario Reign (LA Kings). The Pacific Division of the AHL keeps looking better. The last place Bakersfield Condors in the eight-team division have a points percentage of 0.526. That’s just crazy.

Standouts

I was able to attend all three Gulls games this week since they were all at home. Finding a standout skater is difficult. I’ll give it to Mike Liambas. He had eight penalty minutes during the week and the only goal with a keeper in net in Friday’s win over Milwaukee. The fourth line looks to be ok.

Defensively, Jaycob Megna was the player of the week. He is always steady. You won’t find him on the rush too often. He exemplified San Diego’s week. He even scored a goal. Plus, you just can’t coach a player to be 6’6″. You should have seen him on the ice for the national anthem standing next to diminutive Austin Ortega.

Top Stopper

Bakersfield’s scouting report on goalie Kevin Boyle must have said to throw off-speed wristers to the top corners. And the backup plan was to take point shots right at his pads. But no one had a good scouting report on Reto Berra. He stopped 75 of 76 shots in 2+ games. That’s a 0.987 save percentage. The man was unbelievable last week.

PIMs

I know Mike Liambas led the team with 8 penalty minutes last week. Nice job keeping the penalties down boys. The most impressive thing that happened in a Gulls game this week was this fight between Bakersfield’s Braden Christoffer and Escondido native Austin Ortega. Ortega is listed at 5’8″. You make the call on that. Ortega was recalled from the ECHL affiliate Utah Grizzlies last week. He’d been taking a lot of abuse presumably because of his stature. He was getting the once-over from two players near the Bakersfield bench when he decided he’d had enough. Ortega did really well defending himself. He’s not the new enforcer, but it was a pretty awesome sight.

Attendance

The Gulls still lead the AHL in attendance with an average of 9,206 fans per game. They’re only 171 per game ahead of the Hershey Bears (Washington Capitals). It’s a good thing 11,180 fans came out for a pair of green socks Saturday night.

Games This Week

The Gulls have only two games this week. Saturday and Sunday they will be in Cleveland to face the Monsters (Columbus Blue Jackets). The Gulls lost in overtime to them on March 6. San Diego will need at least two points if they’re going to keep pace in the ultra-competitive Pacific Division.