Gulls Top Eagles in Shootout : Hockey: Goalie Rick Knickle keeps the Gulls in the game, allowing Ron Duguay to score a goal to win, 3-2.

On a night when the Gulls’ high-scoring offense was held in check, the Gulls’ defense did enough checking to help them win in a shootout against the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, 3-2.

The Gulls, losers of three shootouts, won in the seventh-round of the tiebreaker when Ron Duguay scored. With the scored tied, 1-1, after six rounds, Duguay twice lost control of the puck before beating Eagle goalie Jason Muzzatti.

Rick Knickle then stopped Todd Harkins to preserve the victory for the Gulls, who led, 2-0, in the second period but were shut down in the third period and the five-minute overtime period.

The Gulls, 8-1-1 in their past 10 games, improved to 28-16-4 and took sole possession of second place in the West Division of the International Hockey League with 60 points. Salt Lake fell to 20-25-5, 45 points.

“You have to give this one to our defense, even though they out-shot us, 36-17,” Gull Coach Don Waddell said. “The shots did not dictate the flow of the game; there were not a lot of good shots. But while our offense was having trouble getting untracked, Knickle did a great job of keeping us in it.”

The Gulls got goals from Ray Whitney (his 20th) and Dmitri Kvartalnov (his IHL-leading 38th). Knickle keyed the victory by stopping 34 of 36 shots in improving to 18-7-2. Knickle is 11-3-1 on the road and tied with Kansas City’s Wade Flaherty for the league lead in victories.