The San Diego Gulls (5-5-1-0) defeated the San Joe Barracuda (5-3-0-2) by a 3-2 score in front of 8,077 fans at Valley View Casino Center on Friday night. San Diego won its third-straight game, and is now 3-1-1-0 in the first half of back-to-back contests. Tonight’s win was the club’s first overtime game and shootout victory of the campaign.
The first meeting between these two divisional foes started with a bang as Gulls’ forward Scott Sabourin dropped the gloves with Barracuda heavyweight Alex Gallant just two minutes into the game. A fast-paced opening frame saw each club generate chances, with Barracuda goaltender Troy Grosenick making several big stops during two Gulls’ power-plays.
At 18:11 of the first San Jose broke the scoreless tie directly from a faceoff as Timo Meier sniped his third goal of the season past Gulls goaltender Dustin Tokarski’s blocker to give the Barracuda a 1-0 lead heading into the locker room.
The second period provided little action until the 10:05 mark when Stu Bickel intercepted a Joakim Ryan pass and beat Grosenick to tie the game at one apiece. San Diego earned another power play opportunity late in the period, but Grosenick stood tall once again. After 40 minutes of play, the teams were knotted at one and San Diego held a 21-16 shot advantage.
“I’ve just been going to the net hard and playing a simple game,” said Bickel of his goal. “Every now and then you get a chance and it’s nice to finish those.”
The final stanza came down to goaltending as Tokarski and Grosenick each made several tremendous saves to keep the game tied until San Jose took a 2-1 advantage at 13:15 of the period. Veteran forward Ryan Carpenter deflected a Tim Heed wrist shot by Tokarski to give the Barracuda their second lead of the game.
The Gulls bombarded Grosenick with multiple shots over the final five minutes of play and Ondrej Kase found a way to slip one past the San Jose goaltender to tie the game 2-2 with 1:01 remaining.
The teams headed to overtime and traded chances the entire five minutes with San Diego dominating possession for long stretches. Gulls forward Kalle Kossila thought he had the winner with only second left in the three-on-three overtime, but was denied by Grosenick’s glove as time expired.
San Diego headed to its first shootout of the season with neither club able to convert on their first three attempts. San Diego’s fourth shooter, Stefan Noesen, broke that trend as he chipped a shot over Grosenick’s glove to give the Gulls the edge. Tokarski stopped Carpenter’s bid on the other end and the Gulls skated off with their third-consecutive win.
“Grosenick and I go back to last year. He robbed me last season on an open-net chance. I wanted a little redemption,” said Noesen. “I have two moves and luckily that one worked.”
San Diego netminder Dustin Tokarski allowed two goals on 23 shots and stopped all four San Jose shootout attempts to earn his fourth win of the season (4-2-0-0) in his sixth appearance. Tokarski is now 4-0-0-0 at home and has stopped 116-of-127 shots he has faced at VVCC (.913 save percentage). San Jose’s starter Troy Grosenick stopped 34-of-36 shots and took the loss (3-3-0-1).
“It was one of those tight-checking games,” said Gulls Head Coach Dallas Eakins. “I think the rivalries in this league are growing. That’s the great thing about this division. As these guys develop the rivalries will only get stronger.”
The Gulls are back at it tomorrow night against San Jose at 7 p.m., the final game of this four-game homestand. Fans can purchase tickets by visiting AXS.com/Gulls or by phone at (619) 359-4730.
NOTES: Ondrej Kase has a three-game point streak (1-2=3)…Corey Tropp added his team-leading 10th assist of the season and also leads the Gulls in points (4-10=14)…Shea Theodore tallied his sixth assist in seven games with San Diego this season…Barracuda forward Daniel O’Regan has 1-5=6 points in his last three games and is tied for the team lead with 5-6=11 points.
Three Stars:
1. Ondrej Kase (SD)
2. Stu Bickel (SD)
3. Mirco Mueller (SJ)
