After Rocky Start, Gulls Again Trip Roadrunners

The Gulls do love to play the Phoenix Roadrunners.

And the season’s largest home crowd, 7,011, saw the Gulls shut out Phoenix in the final two periods and post a 5-3 victory at the San Diego Sports Arena Saturday.

What nobody realized, however, is that the Gulls have never been better--they are 12-10-0. For the first time in this franchise’s brief history, the Gulls are two games above .500.

“I didn’t realize that. That’s nice to know,” Coach Don Waddell. “The thing about that is we’re going to score goals. We should win games.”

Goalie Bruce Hoffort survived a rocky first period after which Phoenix (5-14-4) led, 3-1. Hoffort (2-3) settled down and stopped 20 shots. On offense, center Len Hachborn (one goal, two assists) and linemates Dmitri Kvartalnov and Robbie Nichols (each with a goal and an assist) went to work.

The Gulls, with 24 points, are back in third place in the International Hockey League’s West Division, passing Salt Lake (23 points), which lost, 5-1, to Muskegon.

The Gulls have won eight of 12 games and seven of nine in which they led entering the third period. This was their fourth consecutive victory over Phoenix, loser of nine of its last 10. The Gulls have outscored the Roadrunners, 40-26. Their record against Phoenix: 7-1-0.

“Right now we’ve got their number,” Waddell said. “We caught them at a good time. They did the same thing to us last year.”

The Gulls have been able to fatten up on the Roadrunners and they hope to get bigger just in time for Thanksgiving. A victory at Milwaukee (14 points, last in the East) Wednesday could put the Gulls three games above .500.

They will need the victory Wednesday, because Thursday the Gulls will open a stretch where seven of eight games will be against opponents with records of .500 or better.

How precious are all these victories against Phoenix? The Gulls have the fifth-best record in the 10-team IHL but they only have 16 games left on their schedule against teams with losing records.

“This is a big victory,” Waddell said. “But we’ve got to come out of the next road trip with a couple of wins. Our goal was to get to .500, then it was to get above it. Now it is to stay above it.”

One thing about the Roadrunners, they don’t necessarily make it easy for the Gulls. The Gulls had to comeback from a three-goal deficit to win, 6-5, in overtime at Phoenix the previous Saturday. Scott Bjugstad gave them fits with three goals, all coming in the second period.

This time left wing Kyosti Karjalainen needed just 20 minutes to score three goals, giving Phoenix a 3-1 lead in the first period before Nichols put in a loose puck with two seconds left to make it 3-2.

The Gulls tied it, 3-3, on a rare power-play goal at the 6:08 mark of the second period. Hachborn scored his 12th of the season (tying teammate Brent Sapergia, who scored in the first period) as he circled and accelerated from the right side then stuffed the puck between goalie David Goverde (4-8) and the left post.

Then Gull Ray Whitney (three goals, three assists in three games) drilled one in from the slot to make it 4-3 with 5:39 left in the period.

The Gulls’ Kvartalnov got his 18th goal to cap the scoring.

Gulls Notes

The Gulls will make their first Eastern trip this week, with games at Milwaukee (Wednesday), Fort Wayne (Thursday) and Muskegon (Saturday). They don’t return home until Dec. 6 and 7 to face Salt Lake. . . . Defenseman Sergei Starikov, with three assists Saturday that tied a single-game Gulls record, has assists in six consecutive games.