Gulls Continue Fast Start, Top Ft. Wayne : Hockey: Four different players score in a 4-2 victory, the Gulls’ third in a row.

The Fort Wayne Komets showed up at the Sports Arena on Thursday night and started a goalie named Pokey Reddick. His mother gave him that nickname years ago because she thought he was slow. More recently, the Gulls made it stick.

In front of 3,519, the Gulls won their third consecutive game, 4-2, by answering the Komets each time they pulled within one. And the Gulls it on goals that would make any goalie look pokey.

The Gulls (3-0) continued their most successful start in their brief three-year history. In each of the past two seasons the club opened with a victory, then lost four in a row.

In addition, Rick Knickle has played every minute of the season and now is the first International Hockey League goalie with three victories.

The Gulls’ final goal came only 30 seconds after Fort Wayne pulled within one, 3-2.

“One of the good things we showed tonight,” said Coach Rick Dudley, “was every time they pulled close, we came up with another goal.”

Larry Floyd punctured the Komets’ brief high with 2 minutes, 52 seconds gone in the final period when he skated onto a centering pass from John Anderson directly in front of the net and redirected the puck past Reddick.

It came only 30 seconds after Carey Lucyk slapped the puck across the ice from the right point and sneaked it between Knickle’s stick and the right post.

While Dudley was happy with his team’s ability to score the timely goal, he was somewhat perturbed with a couple other developments.

“At times,” Dudley explained, “we looked very lackluster. I didn’t like our start at all. It was very unexpected. . . . I thought we’d come flying out of the gate, but we didn’t.”

Actually, the Gulls were caught up in a physical game with one of their meanest players, Perry Anderson, out with a back injury. Anderson’s aggressive style--especially in the corner boards--adds another dimension to the Gulls.

Dudley’s other complaint wasn’t really over a recent development, but rather a trend that more accurately can be termed a rut. The Gulls capitalized on only one of nine power-play situations and are only two for 24 with a man advantage in three games.

“We had some shots again,” Dudley said. “We’re just going to have to refine it a little. We have to get everybody understanding that if the puck is in a certain position, you have to be in a certain position.”

Conversely, the Gulls lead the league in killing penalties. They survived seven Fort Wayne power plays and have allowed only one goal in 23 short-handed situations in three games.

The Gulls almost didn’t score on the power play against Fort Wayne--their lone man-advantage goal came with only six seconds before the penalty box door was to swing open.

But four minutes into the opening period, Scott Arniel saved the Gulls by pouncing on a rebound and putting it by Reddick.

Only 1:10 later, it was 2-0. Hubie McDonough finished a quick transition from offense to defense by beating Reddick.

But Fort Wayne halved the deficit with just over seven minutes remaining in the first period when Kelly Hurd broke past the defense and blistered a slap shot from the top of the right face-off circle that whistled over Knickle’s left shoulder and under the crossbar.

Although the Komets’ aggressive style kept the Gulls somewhat off-balance, it failed to attain its intended purpose. The Gulls still managed to outshoot the Komets in every period, 11-9 in the first, 15-7 in the second and 12-10 in the third. The Gulls have more shots than their opponents in all nine periods this season.

But shooting more than the other guys doesn’t matter unless a couple trickle behind the goalie. And the Gulls could not do that for more than 34 minutes after their second goal.

In fact, No. 3 didn’t come until 42 seconds remained in the second period. That’s when Steve Martinson sent a pass through traffic to Mitch Lamoureux skating down the slot. Lamoureux’s ensuing wrist shot came too quickly for Reddick to respond.

“He put it in a space about a foot wide,” Lamoureux said of Martinson’s pass. “He did all the work--it was a hell of a pass.”

Gull Notes

The Gulls’ mascot, Sandy Gull, altered his costume for Thursday night’s game--he now wears pants. The addition came after a caller to a postgame radio show jokingly complained about the previously naked mascot. . . . Fort Wayne and the Gulls will hook up for the second time in as many days--and for the final time this season at the Sports Arena--tonight at 7:05. . . . In the season’s first three games, the Gulls have trailed only once--for 32 seconds in the first game after Salt Lake scored first.