Third Period Still Haunts Gulls
The season is new, the slate is clean and much of the personnel has changed.
Despite all this, the Gulls hope they haven’t encountered an old nemesis: the third period.
The Gulls lost 42 of 45 games in which they trailed after the second period last year. And in Friday’s 3-2 loss to the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, in front of 3,505 at the San Diego Sports Arena, the Gulls could not recover from a two-goal deficit.
Gull Coach Don Waddell said fatigue was a problem for his team, which opened the season with two games in as many nights after not having played an exhibition game.
“It caught up with us, especially in the second period,” Waddell said of the Gulls (1-1). “We were standing around. We got heavy feet. I thought we’d come out with a lot of life and get tired maybe near the end of the game.”
The Gulls, who were 3-38 with another four losses in overtime last year in games they trailed after the second period, allowed Salt Lake (1-1) to score twice in the second period. That was the difference.
The Gulls never were out of range, however. They outshot the Eagles, 39-35, and 11-6 in the final period. Their defense, for the second night in a row, prevented Salt Lake from scoring on the power play. The Eagles’ penalty unit was 0 for 12 in the two-game series.
But the Gulls weren’t much better with the man advantage, converting on only two of 10 opportunities.
“We had our chances,” Waddell said. “If you don’t score on the power play with that many opportunities it’s going to catch up with you. We definitely had a chance to win the game.”
And plenty of time in the third period, when the Gulls had four power-play opportunities--three of which killed. The lone goal of the final period came at 12:21 with the Gulls on the power play. Darcy Norton’s slap shot from the left circle made it 3-2.
The futility of both teams on the power play never was more evident through the first two periods. The Gulls--second in the league to Peoria in power-play goals last season with 105--were in a 0-for-13 drought when they finally scored with a man advantage to tie the game, 1-1, in the second period.
“I’ve got to take responsibility for (the power play), because we only worked on it one day in practice,” Waddell said. “It hasn’t been a priority. We wanted to work on our own end and five-on-five coverage. Going on the road here, we’ll practice our power play a lot.”
The Gulls have to catch a 6 a.m. flight to St. Louis today, then take a three-hour bus ride to Peoria to face the Turner Cup champion Rivermen, who opened with a 7-3 victory over Milwaukee Friday.
The Gulls won’t have the luxury of practice. Waddell said the team, which opens its longest road trip (six games) of the season with a 7:35 p.m. CDT faceoff, will probably arrive shortly before the game.
The Eagles led 2-1 after two periods with both goals coming off rebounds.
Salt Lake right wing Rich Chernomaz made it 1-0 when he scored a short-handed goal with 5:10 remaining in the first after Gulls goalie Rick Knickle failed to control a wrist shot by Darren Stolk.
The Gulls finally scored on the power play to tie the game. Brent Sapergia, off a pass from the corner by Steve Martinson, beat goalie Jason Muzzatti with a backhand shovel shot.
But 1:09 before the end of the second period and two seconds after the Gulls killed a power play, Salt Lake’s Brian Deasley, following Todd Harkins’ shot, stuffed in a rolling puck to make it 2-1.
