Peoria Completes Sweep to Knock Gulls Out of Playoffs

It was 1949 when San Diego hockey fans had their first chance to see a playoff winner here. Professional teams have come and gone, and the fans are still waiting for a winner.

With a 2-1 loss Monday to the Peoria Rivermen, the Gulls were swept, 4-0, in their first-round, best-of-seven series in the International Hockey League playoffs.

Four different professional hockey teams have now made 13 postseason appearances, none getting past the first round.

A crowd of the 5,626 turned out at the San Diego Sports Arena, perhaps hoping for the best but anticipating the worst. Monday’s crowd was the smallest since Feb. 27, when the Rivermen were here to defeat the Gulls, 6-4.

“Losing like this, there’s really no consolation,” Gull Larry Floyd said when asked to consider the positive side of 1991-92. Floyd was the Gulls’ most valuable player last year on a team that collapsed down the stretch and missed the IHL playoffs in its debut season.

“Hopefully, everybody’s learned from this. Probably half of the guys won’t be around here next year. But I hope they take this experience with them.”

The Gulls finished 45-28-9 this season, putting up 99 points and finishing third in the West Division, after posting a 30-45-8 record, 68 points and a fifth-place finish in 1990-91. But they clearly had their hands full against second-place Peoria (105 points), the defending Turner Cup champion.

The Gulls played their best game of the series Monday but would have been shut out had Robbie Nichols not scored with 36 seconds remaining. Peoria held the Gulls to a season-low two shots on goal in the first period, 24 for the game as J.C. Bergeron outplayed Gull Rick Knickle in goal.

But when they look back on this game in the off-season, this is what the Gulls are likely to remember:

--Ray Whitney, behind the net, centers to Dmitri Kvartalnov in the slot on the power play in the first period. Kvartalnov misses the pass.

--Kent Hawley and Len Hachborn get three tries to put in a rebound of Kvartalnov’s shot on another power play in the second period. Hachborn flails twice from the left side of the crease, appearing to score, when the whistle is blown and the puck is in Bergeron’s glove.

--Kvartalnov delivers a high, hard shot from the right circle headed for Bergeron’s head. Bergeron deflects it with his glove. Kvartalnov slams his stick to the ice.

--Floyd shoots from the slot 1:55 into the third period. Bergeron can’t find the rebound as the puck drops in front of him. Steve Martinson rushes in for the rebound attempt and flips it over the net, over the glass and into the crowd.

--With 8:52 left and the Gulls trying to cut the lead to 2-1, Kvartalnov’s hard slap shot bounces off Bergeron’s pad to Hachborn, who sends the puck across the crease to Whitney, who shoots at the open net on Bergeron’s stick side. Whitney shoots wide. Another power play, another missed opportunity.

A frustrating chain of events for a club that finished the season losing 10 of its final 13 games.

“I don’t think we played well as team on the ice, and that’s what playoff hockey’s all about,” the Gulls’ Ron Duguay said.

Peoria, which scored no less than four goals in each of the previous three games, got all they needed from Dominic Lavoie and Jason Ruff. Lavoie scored on a slap shot from the blue line that sailed right to left against Knickle in the first period, and Ruff surprised the Gull goalie with a quick shot off a faceoff from the right circle 3:20 into the second period.