Gulls’ Goal Rush Too Much for Roadrunners

What’s this? A minor-league hockey game with only two penalties in the first period?

Oh, here’s the problem--the teams were too busy scoring. The Gulls scored six goals in the opening period en route to an 8-5 victory over the Phoenix Roadrunners in front of 8,015, the largest Sports Arena crowd this season.

Dale DeGray led the way with three goals as he became the Gulls’ first defender to score a hat trick.

The Gulls’ now have won seven in a row to open the season, a team-record winning streak and three shy of the IHL record of consecutive victories to open a season.

The Kansas City Blades won 10 in a row to start the 1991-92 season. A parallel to that--one which the Gulls refuse to discuss--is that Kansas City went on to claim the Turner Cup.

The Gulls prefer to take things one game at a time, and that means eight in a row is their goal.

“We’ll keep it going as long as we can,” said Coach Rick Dudley. “As long as we don’t look down the road.

“One thing that was really nice about tonight was that it could have been very easy to come in overconfident (the Gulls defeated Phoenix, 5-1, earlier in the season), but we came out and played hard.”

Especially in that first period. The Gulls outshot Phoenix (1-7-1), 24-3, in the opening 20 minutes. Most of the shots came as a result of quick, precision passes that exploited a slow Roadrunner defense.

“It was the best first period moving the puck around that I’ve ever coached,” said Dudley, who spent the past few years in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres.

More often than not, John Anderson displayed the magic touch in the opening period as he became the first Gull in the team’s two-plus-year history to get three assists in one period.

Anderson was responsible for the initial goal as he raced into the corner to pick up a loose puck and immediately sent it back to the slot where all Dan Shank had to do was redirect it behind goalie Darryl Gilmour.

That came less than five minutes into the game, and 24 seconds later it was 2-0. This time it was Scott Arniel getting his stick on a centering pass from Robbie Nichols.

Anderson’s second assist was to Hubie McDonough, who broke loose down the left boards before taking the pass, skating in on Gilmour and making the goalie look bad.

DeGray then scored two consecutive goals less than a minute apart, the second of which--a slap shot from the right point--came with four minutes 19 seconds remaining till the first intermission.

When Shank beat Gilmour for a second time--with 2:15 remaining--he helped the Gulls establish a team record for most goals in a period, six, breaking the previous mark by one. Two seasons ago the Gulls scored five times in one period against the same Roadrunners.

Between periods, Phoenix Coach Tim Bothwell changed goalies.

It worked.

Not that David Goverde was stellar in goal, but the Gulls managed only eight shots that period.

The only Roadrunner goal came as DeGray tried to send a pass back to a teammate in front of his net. The pass, however, hit goalie Rick Knickle’s skate and crept in. Gord Dineen had the Gulls’ only goal of the period.

The scoring barrage slowed as the teams decided to drop their gloves. Seven minor penalties were doled out in the period, four majors and three game misconducts.

Two misconducts were instigator penalties (Phoenix’s Marc Saumier and Ed Kastelic). The third went to the Gulls’ Alan Hepple for leaving the bench. Hepple, however, should get style points. He dove off the bench fist-first into Phoenix’s Phil Crowe.

Crowe, however, survived that and instigated the Roadrunners’ comeback bid by scoring 3:32 into the final period. Mike Vukonich followed with two goals. Darryl Williams added one. In the middle of it all, DeGray finished his hat trick.