The San Diego Gulls were unable to overcome two three-goal deficits, losing to the San Jose Barracuda 4-3 Saturday in their first regulation loss in their eight games at Valley View Casino Center.
The Barracuda, the San Jose Sharks’ American Hockey League affiliate, got goals from Jeremy Langlois and Karl Stollery in the first period. They increased their lead to 3-0 on Mark Cundari’s power-play goal one minute, 31 seconds into the second period.
Brian McGrattan scored for the Gulls 34 seconds later. San Jose regained a three-goal lead at 11:08 of the second period on Greger Hanson’s first goal of the season.
The Gulls cut the deficit to 4-2 on Nic Kerdiles power-play goal with 5:18 to play before a crowd announced at 11,396.
Gulls coach Dallas Eakins pulled goaltender Matt Hackett for a sixth attacker with about five minutes to play. The Gulls were unable to capitalize on the six-on-five advantage until Chris Mueller scored with 2.1 seconds left.
Goaltender Troy Grosenick stopped 32 of 35 shots for the Barracuda (5-6- 0-1). Hackett stopped 22 of 26 shots as the Gulls fell to 9-3-0-1.
The Gulls won each of their first six home games, then lost 4-3 in a shootout to San Jose Friday night.
Before the game, the Gulls’ NHL parent team, the Anaheim Ducks announced they had recalled left wing Nick Ritchie and center Michael Sgarbossa from the Gulls and assigned left wing Max Friberg and defenseman Korbinian Holzer to the Gulls.
Ritchie leads the Gulls with nine goals. The 19-year-old Ritchie was the Gulls’ youngest player. He was chosen by the Ducks in the first round of the 2014 NHL draft, the 10th overall selection.
Ritchie and Sgarbossa are the seventh and eighth players the Ducks have recalled from the Gulls this season.
The Gulls are scheduled to begin a three-game road trip Wednesday at Stockton. Their next game at the Valley View Casino Center is set for Nov. 25 against the Texas Stars.
— City News Service
