Gulls End Slump, Pluck Golden Eagles

You’re slumping, slumping. . . .

So you approach practices a little different, tell your players they need to work harder and play more like a team.

The usual stuff. The Gulls answer Coach Mike O’Connell by getting dumped on their first home game of the new year.

The blues take on added hues when the next day their best defenseman and fourth leading scorer is reassigned, and a new player arrives and tells club officials he can’t play because he’s too out of shape.

Had they not been scheduled to play Salt Lake Friday night at the San Diego Sports Arena, the Gulls might have pulled the covers over their heads and stayed in bed all weekend.

Instead, they went on a scoring binge and thumped the Golden Eagles, 7-3, in an International Hockey League game seen by 8,136.

At the halfway point of the season, the victory lifted the Gulls (18-19-4) back into third-place in the West, after Phoenix (their opponent tonight in Arizona), defeated Salt Lake (22-19-3) to hold the spot for a day.

The seven goals matched their franchise high, when they defeated Salt Lake, 7-4, Oct. 26. But that effort included two empty net goals as the Golden Eagles played catch up.

This game was the antithesis of Wednesday’s 6-2 loss to Phoenix, when the Roadrunners ruled.

This time, the up-tempo game the Gulls initiated early never really changed hands throughout.

So the recently dormant offense kicked it into gear, with production from players who had been seen, but seldom heard from before Friday. Robbie Nichols and Steve Martinson got their second goals of the season, Ron Duguay scored his third, and Mike Sullivan got his first two-goal game with the Gulls.

The Gulls outshot Salt Lake 30-12 in the first two periods, and held the Golden Eagles to five shot in the third.

Not since Oct. 5, when the Gulls scored four goals in the first period, had the first smiled so kindly on them at home.

Just over three minutes into the first period, Dennis Holland and Mike Sullivan scored two minutes apart for the 2-0 lead.

After Holland’s goal from the slot, Sullivan redirected his own shot off goalie Steve Guenette’s pads and stroked it in behind Guenette from the left crease.

But the goal was noted for its marquee value as well. Getting an assist was Rod Dallman, the player who said he was was in no condition to play.

Dallman, was in training camp with the Flyers early in the season, but hadn’t played in two months. After his assist, he was slapped with a roughing penalty.

“He’s known as a hitter,” said Nichols. “And when you pick up someone like that, it’s going to help. Once we starter hitting , we never let up the whole night.”

This home stand was seen as especially critical since the Gulls’ three opponents are bunched in the second-through-fifth spots in the IHL West.

Before Friday, the Gulls had given up six goals three times and seven once in four of their past five games, and the defense was getting its share of the kind of attention it didn’t want.

But the offense had gone into a temporary winter’s hibernation of its own, had been outscored 28-15 in that same period, and suffered excessively on even-strength goals--when it’s five-against-five--where it was outscored 22-7.

Gull Notes

Gull assistant coach Charlie Simmer injured his groin Wednesday. He is expected to be out three weeks. Goalie Alain Chevrier injured his ankle Friday and will miss tonight’s game in Phoenix, as will Ron Duguay, who suffered a mild concussion Friday.