Muskegon Rallies to Top Gulls : Hockey: After Kvartalnov, Martinson and Norton give San Diego a 3-1 lead, Lumberjacks storm back for 4-3 victory.

The Gulls blew a two-goal lead and lost to Muskegon, 4-3, Saturday night in International Hockey League play in front of a standing-room only crowd of 3,733 at L.C. Walker Arena.

After falling behind 3-1 after a period, Muskegon scored three second-period goals and shut the Gulls (27-16-4, 58 points) down.

“I’m disappointed that we got a lead and didn’t bear down,” Gulls Coach Don Waddell said. “But we certainly had our chances.”

The loss was the Gulls’ first in regulation in their last 10 games, but they stayed a point ahead of Peoria (26-16-5, 57 points) for second place in the IHL West Division. The Gulls had not been beaten in regulation time since Jan. 4 at Peoria.

Muskegon (26-15-8, 60 points) took a 1-0 lead on Mark Major’s power-play goal, but the Gulls answered with three consecutive goals in the first period. Dmitri Kvartalnov scored his league-leading 32nd goal 9 minutes 54 seconds into the period to make it 1-1. Steve Martinson gave the Gulls a 2-1 lead with his 11th on a power play 16:46, then 20 seconds later Darcy Norton got his 12th.

Muskegon scored three goals in the second, the first two by Mike Needham and the other by Mike Michayluk. Needham’s goals were his 27th and 28th.

After scoring four or more goals in 14 consecutive games, the Gulls have not scored at least four in two consecutive games.

“I’m not really concerned at all because of the style of games they have been,” Waddell said. “We played very well tonight. We just can’t win them all.”

Winning goalie Bruce Racine (8-5-2) stopped 32 of 35 shots. Loser Bruce Hoffort (8-5-2) stopped 18 of 22.

The Gulls are in the middle of a four-game road trip. They travel to Salt Lake to play Tuesday and Thursday.