Indianapolis Hands Gulls Another Loss

Send in the clowns. Send in Sandy Gull. But send in someone.

For the ninth consecutive time, the Gulls demonstrated home can be where the heart is, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll win. They lost 7-3 Wednesday night to Indianapolis in front of 4,463 at the Sports Arena.

In the Gulls’ next game Friday, Coach Mike O’Connell might be wise to have Sandy Gull, the team mascot, take off his headpiece and hand him a stick.

Not that the Gulls (24-31-7) aren’t playing hard. They just aren’t winning.

But these are desperate hours for the Gulls. Desperate enough, in fact, that injuries to the defensive corps forced forward Bob Jones to lace up and play as a defenseman. The team is down to four after Dave Korol and Rob MacInnis were injured Saturday in Phoenix.

“We just had too many breakdowns on defense,” said Steve Martinson, who scored two power-play goals, the Gulls’ 81st and 82nd of the season.

Another shakeup in the starting lineup, the addition of former Albany forwards Soren True and Joe Stefan, didn’t matter much, either.

It was the Gulls’ fourth loss to the Ice (36-20-3), the first at home. But this time it wasn’t as lopsided as the scores were when the Gulls played in Indianapolis. Going into this game, the Ice outscored them, 23-3.

“Give them credit,” O’Connell said. “They have a good team. We just started slow and never recovered. We took a lot of quality shots. It could have been a one-goal game in the third.”

Alas, the Jones switch caused miscommunication, jitters, or both, and drew Larry Floyd out of position enough to contribute to Indianapolis’ back-to-back goals in the first period.

A third Ice goal, 48 seconds later, put the Gulls behind 3-0 with 14:49 left in the period.

Plenty of time for the Gulls to surge or purge.

They did a little of both.

O’Connell pulled goalie Mark Reimer for Scott Brower. Then, Martinson scored to make it 3-1 after one. A 15-foot slapshot by Darcy Norton took a Gulls bounce, and Martinson shot over a sprawled Jimmy Waite, Indianapolis goalie.

By the skin of their teeth, the Gulls have managed to keep a safe distance from fifth-place Milwaukee. Not anymore. Milwaukee’s 6-1 victory Wednesday over Peoria moved the Admirals to within four points of San Diego. Only the top four teams in each division make the playoffs--should the Gulls finish fourth, their first-round opponent would be Peoria.

The Ice scored at least two goals in every period.

Wednesday’s second and third periods, the 11th and 12th against the Ice, were no exception.

The Gulls managed to sandwich a goal between two by Indianapolis, to give the Ice a 5-2 lead after two periods.

Defenseman Darin Banister scored second goal of the season and his first goal since Oct. 30, at 15:38 in the second off a faceoff from the right circle.

Taking a 5-2 lead into the third, Indianapolis scored twice, with a Martinson goal wedged in between.

Brian Noonan had a hat trick and Sean Williams and Mike McNeill had two apiece.

Gulls Notes

Since the departure of former Gulls Derek Mayer and Dennis Holland, both of whom went to Adirondack of the American Hockey League, San Diego has struggled in a big way. But injuries throughout the Red Wings organization--the Gulls have a working agreement with Detroit--have kept them from supplying the Gulls with needed manpower. Don’t expect any relief soon. Mayer has been hurt and has played only three games. Holland has six points in six games and is playing well. “As far as coming back (to San Diego), they’re both in our plans, but we’re trying to get San Diego some help,” said Barry Melrose, Adirondack general manager. “Who we can send to San Diego depends on who we get from Detroit. The whole organization is a bit battered.” . . . According to a survey by the Sports Marketing Group in Dallas, hockey is not among the top 20 spectator sports. In fact, where hockey rated well, and often, was in the most unpopular category. Minor league hockey was disliked by 31.6% of people 18 and older, college hockey by 31.2%, Olympic hockey by 30.9% and NHL hockey by 30.6%.