Mike Sgarbossa and Nick Ritchie scored two minutes, 26 seconds apart in the second period and goaltender Anton Khudobin rebounded from his first loss by stopping 24 of 25 shots in the San Diego Gulls 3-1 victory over the San Antonio Rampage Friday in San Antonio.
Sgarbossa opened the scoring 1:03 into the second period when he put a backhander from just inside the blue line between the pads of San Antonio goaltender Spencer Martin for his seventh goal of the season.
Ritchie, 20, the Gulls youngest player, scored his team-leading 12th goal of the season at 3:29.
The Rampage, the Colorado Avalanche’s American Hockey League affiliate, cut the margin to 2-1 at 10:22 of the second period on Reid Petryk’s power-play goal.
Chris Mueller scored a power-play empty net goal for the Gulls (16-12-0- 1) with 54 seconds to play.
Martin made 32 saves before a 6,286-person crowd at the AT&T Center.
The Gulls, the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate, killed two of San Antonio’s three power play opportunities. The Gulls scored one of their five power-play opportunities.
The loss extended the Rampage’s (14-12-7-0) home ice winless streak to nine games (0-8-1).
The two teams will meet again Sunday in San Antonio. The Gulls will next play at the Valley View Casino Center next Friday against the Charlotte Checkers, the Carolina Hurricanes’ AHL affiliate.
— City News Service
