Knickle Lifts Gulls in Opener : Hockey: Goalie proves tough when push comes to shove. It does and the Gulls beat Salt Lake, 5-2.

The Gulls’ third season was only 10 seconds old when it became reminiscent of a tired Don Rickles line. That’s when a fight broke out along the corner boards.

The scuffle pushed open the doors leading off the ice. The doors quickly were shut. After all, the show must go on.

When the Gulls and the Salt Lake Golden Eagles finally played the game, the Gulls proved the more agile, winning, 5-2, in front of 7,425 at the Sports Arena.

Although several of his teammates turned in eye-opening performances while building the lead, Rick Knickle, busy in goal preserving the lead, was the top performer. He finished with 20 saves.

“He played like we expected,” Coach Rick Dudley said of Knickle, the only player in the Gulls’ starting lineup without NHL experience. “There’s no question about that.”

Knickle came up big early in the final period as the Gulls’ maintained a precarious one-goal lead. While Knickle shut out Salt Lake during the game’s final 18 minutes, the Gulls got some breathing room with two late goals.

“When they pulled to 3-2,” Dudley said, “in fact every time this season a team has drawn close to us, we’ve been able to old them down, and that’s important, real important.”

Dudley was referring back to to the Gulls’ two exhibition victories over the Phoenix Roadrunners.

As has been promised throughout training camp, the Gulls’ offense was predicated on sharp passing. Hubie McDonough, with three assists, did the most to fulfill the promise.

But what’s hockey without a few fracases? Both teams combined for 97 penalty minutes and three players received ejections.

There were three roughing, three high sticking penalties in the first three minutes alone.

The result? In the first period, the Gulls went on four power plays, the Golden Eagles three.

And while the Gulls could not convert any of their first-period man-advantage situations, Salt Lake scored on its first power play. Just 3:50 into the game, Kevin Wortman’s slap shot from the right point got past Knickle’s right shoulder.

That advantage did not last. Only 32 seconds later, Gull right wing Dan Shank skated across the slot and surprised Salt Lake goaltender Trevor Kidd with a quick backhander to make it 1-1.

Despite their inability to score with a man advantage, the Gulls went ahead while short handed. Bill Houlder, who attended the Gulls’ training camp but didn’t sign until Friday, sent Mitch Lamoureux on a break away with a pass up the near boards.

Lamoureux, with nearly 6:50 gone, maneuvered in on Kidd, drew him out of position and had an empty net in which to score and give the Gulls a 2-1 lead.

The second period followed the same story board as the first: lots of penalties, little scoring.

There was just one goal, in fact, but it was the night’s best.

Almost 13 minutes into the period, left wing John Anderson, 35, looked as nimble as the youngest player on the ice as he skated past the blue line with Salt Lake defender Kevin Grant in front of him.

Anderson escaped Grant’s shroud by sliding the puck to the inside of the defender, then skating toward the outside before jumping over him. As Grant lay flat on the ice, Anderson moved in on Kidd and beat him to the left side to make it 3-1.

The real fun didn’t begin until the final period. Some six minutes in, Gull Robbie Nicholls became the target of Patrick Lebeau as the two mixed it up in the corner boards. Once play was whistled dead, Lebeau began to back away and Nichols skated toward him, opening himself first to Lebeau’s spearing shot to the ribs, and then to a right uppercut from Kevin Melrose, the third man in.

Both Lebeau and Melrose received game misconducts. Lebeau also was tagged with a major penalty for spearing and Melrose got a double minor for roughing.

Nicholls was issued two minutes for roughing, negating one of Lebeau’s penalties, but nevertheless giving the Gulls a two-man advantage for two minutes.

As time wound down on that power play, Scott Arniel found a rebound at the right post and poked it in to give the Gulls a 4-2 lead.

Lindy Ruff made it 5-2 with nine minutes left as he skated onto a drop pass that Lamoureux put between his own legs and slapped it past Kidd.

Gull Notes

The Gulls’ front office on Aug. 5 distributed a news release with the following hype: “The Gulls are proud to announce ‘Operation Sellout’ for their first regular-season game of the 1992-93 IHL season, Friday, Oct. 9, against their Pacific Division rivals, the Salt Lake Golden Eagles. ‘Operation Sellout’ not only will feature the finest in International Hockey League action, but the Gulls also are planning a spectacular opening night of festivities, the likes of which have never been seen in San Diego.” Operation Sellout drew 7,425 to the 13,100-seat Sports Arena. . . . The game, scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m., got under way 25 minutes late because of pregame activities, the likes of which had never before been seen in San Diego.

In an attempt to draw bigger crowds, the IHL has stacked its schedule on weekend dates. The downside is that teams must endure playing games on three consecutive nights several times during the season. The first such instance happens this weekend. When the Phoenix Roadrunners face off against the Gulls tonight at the Sports Arena (7:05), it will be their third game in as many nights. The Gulls will face such tests 11 times this season, the first spell begins Thursday.

The Gulls have opened all of their IHL seasons against Salt Lake, winning the first two debut encounters, 4-3 in 1990, and 4-2 last year. . . . The Gulls added one more NHL veteran before the game. Defenseman Bill Houlder, who had been in training camp, signed and was added to the 16-man game roster. Houlder has played in 96 NHL games and brings the number of Gulls with NHL experience to 17. The breakdown: John Anderson (RW, 814), Scott Arniel (C, 730), Lindy Ruff (D, 410), Gord Dineen (D, 410), Perry Anderson (LW, 400), Hubie McDonough (C, 165), Dale DeGray (D, 153), Houlder (D, 96), Dan Shank (RW, 77), Mitch Lamoureux (C, 73), Steve Martinson (LW, 49), Sergei Starikov (D, 16), Larry Floyd (LW, 12), Bruce Hoffort (G, 9), Don McSween (D, 9), Alan Hepple (D, 3), Mitch Molloy (LW, 2). The 17 combine for 3,709 NHL games. . . . Although a new rule went into effect revoking mandatory use of helmets this season, every player on the ice Friday wore one.