Long Wait Finally Over for Ducks’ Loach : Hockey: Left winger led Anaheim’s IHL team with 32 goals and 36 assists. Monday, he was called up.

Lonnie Loach had stopped asking why a long time ago.

There was no sense mulling over the Mighty Ducks’ decision to send him to San Diego at the end of training camp in October. The past was past. What concerned Loach was playing well and returning to the NHL.

“All you can do is play,” Loach said. “The only way I can get anywhere is to play. I’d love to come up to Anaheim and play there.”

Loach’s outlook, perseverance and performance paid dividends Monday when the Ducks announced that they were recalling the left winger from the San Diego Gulls, their International Hockey League affiliate.

Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira saw Loach score four goals against a visiting Central Red Army team Saturday and made the decision.

“He played very, very well,” Ferreira said. “I was just thinking about it and debating it and I just decided he deserves a shot. He scored four goals and they were really good goals. They weren’t just tap-ins, they were sniper-type goals.”

Loach led the Gulls with 32 goals and 36 assists and was the IHL’s sixth-leading scorer with 68 points.

His style of play--a relentless push toward the opponent’s goal--made him a favorite among the San Diego Sports Arena’s rowdy, beer-drinking gatherings of twentysomethings that swell to almost 10,000 on weekend nights. Loach’s play kept the Gulls in the thick of the IHL’s Pacific Division race until recently when first-place Las Vegas opened up a 10-point lead over San Diego.

But winning and scoring goals in front of big, happy crowds only goes so far.

Loach couldn’t help but wonder when the goal-hungry Ducks would call, requesting the honor of his scoring presence.

He knew full well that his chance for a promotion boiled down to two basic elements of hockey: offense and defense. His excellent offensive skills appeared to be in his favor. But his defense and lack of size might have held him back.

“If a goal or two is going to help them get to the playoffs, then I think I can help,” Loach, who is generously listed at 5 feet 10, 180 pounds, said before his call-up.

Said San Diego Coach Harold Snepsts: “If you need goal scoring and, of course he has the speed . . . He’s playing a lot better defensively than everybody told me he could.”

Defense and goaltending were the cornerstones on which the Ducks were built. Swift skaters fond of wide-open, King-style hockey need not apply. The Ducks are big, often brutally physical and always determined to keep the opposition involved in a grinding game.

Loach walked into Anaheim Arena on the first day of training camp knowing somebody had to score goals and figured he would fit that role as well as anyone.

After all, he had made an offensive impact as a King rookie last season, recording 23 points (10 goals and 13 assists) in 50 games. And he led the IHL with 131 points as a member of the Ft. Wayne Komets in 1990-91.

He also thought he could throw an occasional check if need be.

“The knock on me is that I’m soft defensively,” said Loach, who was claimed from the Kings in the expansion draft last June. “But (the Ducks) have so many players in the same mold.”

When the Ducks sent Loach to San Diego before their 7-2 opening-night loss to Detroit Oct. 8, he was shocked.

“It was the last thing I expected,” he said.

In the days that followed, Loach tried to make sense of the move but couldn’t seem to come to grips with it.

It didn’t happen overnight, but Loach finally shook off the effects of his demotion.

He went on to lead the Gulls by example, Snepsts and defenseman Greg Brown say.

“Look at his stats,” Snepsts said. “He’s become a real team leader. Yeah, it was a blow to his ego, but I believe he’s giving his best effort,”

Brown, who played 10 games with the Buffalo Sabres last season, looked to Loach for inspiration in tough games.

“Every night, he puts on a show,” Brown said. “He’s just won games for us. It’s very comforting when you have a guy like that.”

Unlike the Ducks, the Gulls weren’t overly concerned with crashing bodies and low scores. If a game develops into wide-open, fire-wagon hockey, they aren’t worried. Loach was clearly comfortable playing such a style, seemingly always on the lookout for a chance to break toward the other team’s net.

When an opportunity came, he drove toward the goal, looked for a shot when he had the puck or a rebound when he didn’t. His offensive skills helped land him a spot on the Gulls’ power-play unit.

He said he’s simply playing to his strengths.

“I know where to be in my own end,” Loach said. “Just because I take chances trying to do something offensively . . . that’s my job. That’s what I do. I wouldn’t say I’m a bad defensive player.”

Loach will have a chance to prove it Wednesday night when the Ducks face the Philadelphia Flyers at Anaheim Arena.

Times staff writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this story.