Roadrunners Maintain Winning Edge Over Gulls

It wasn’t such a big deal after all.

The announcement that Phoenix center Sylvain Couturier was being sent back to the Roadrunners after a short stint with the Los Angeles Kings wasn’t news the Gulls welcomed. He had scored 11 of 19 goals against them.

But it didn’t much matter Wednesday night. Couturier wasn’t as huge a factor as the rest of Roadrunners who decended upon the San Diego Sports Arena to feast on the Gulls, 6-2, in an International Hockey game seen by a record crowd of 10,799.

Six players scored, Couturier not included, as the Roadrunners handed the Gulls a defeat in a game marked by brawls.

The loss moved Phoenix (17-20-3) to within one point of the third-place Gulls (17-19-4) in the West.

After a balanced first period that the Gulls managed to come out of trailing only 1-0, Phoenix toyed with the Gulls the rest of the night.

Most of the games came in the second period, which turned into a disasterous one for the Gulls when goalie Alain Chevrier bolted out of the crease in what appeared to be an attempt to clear the puck. But Chevrier got stuck in a logjam of bodies and couldn’t get out to stop John Van Kessel to slip a pass to Jeff Rohlicek, who easily nudged it in from the slot at 7:53.

The party was only beginning for Phoenix, as the walls were closing in on the Gulls.

Eight minutes later, Phoenix treated a brief Gulls threat like a bully would a pesky younger brother.

A fight involving four players gave the Gulls a two-man advantage for three minutes at 15:19 mark.

Derek Mayer scored his ninth goal, and the Gulls 57th on the power play--the highest in the IHL--from outside the right crease, as goalie David Goverde covered the left side, pulling the Gulls to 2-1 at 16:11.

Twenty-seven seconds later, Phoenix smiled and Van Kessel scored easily.

Forty-seven seconds later, Phoenix chuckled and Daryn McBride scored easily.

Phoenix 4, Gulls, 2, with plenty of egg on their face.

The Roadrunners were grinning like the Joker when they scored to make it 5-1 on an easy goal by Kevin MacDonald at 8:26 in the third.

The Gulls’ Ron Duguay scored his second goal of the season to make it 5-2 late in the third, but Phoenix scored once more, at 18:08, to close it at 6-2.

The Gulls and Phoenix were each 1 of 7 on the power play and the Gulls out shot the Roadrunners 35-27.

The Gulls outshot Phoenix, 12-9 in the first, and came close several times within a two-minute span late in the period.

Darren Lowe came closest, on a slap shot from the right point. Lowe’s shot appeared headed over Goverde’s head, but the goalie made a glove save.

A minute later, on a Phoenix three-on-one, defenseman Dave Korol stopped a shot with his stick as his slid backward on his rear end.