Nic Kerdiles and Chris Wagner both scored twice and goaltender Anton Khudobin made a season-high 41 saves in the San Diego Gulls 5- 2 victory over the San Jose Barracuda Saturday at Valley View Casino Center.
Kerdiles scored 14 minutes, 29 seconds into the first period to give the Gulls a 2-0 lead. The Barracuda cut the deficit to 2-1 on John McCarthy’s power-play goal at 11:03 of the second period. The Gulls reclaimed a two-goal lead 33 seconds later on Kerdiles’s 10th goal of the season.
The Gulls (27-20-1-2) increased their lead to 4-1 when Wagner scored a power-play goal with 17 seconds left in the second period. San Jose (23-18-6-3) again pulled with two on Trevor Parkes’ goal 26 seconds into the third period. Wagner scored an empty-net goal with 1:51 remaining in the third period.
Right wing Brian McGrattan, the Gulls oldest player at 34, opened the scoring 13:21 into the game with his seventh goal of the season before a crowd announced at 9,678.
Goaltender Troy Grosenick made 21 saves for the Barracuda, the San Jose Sharks American Hockey League affiliate.
The Gulls killed three of San Jose’s four power-play opportunities. The Gulls scored on one of their two power-play opportunities.
The victory gave the Gulls sole possession of third place in the AHL’s seven-team Pacific Division with a .570 points percentage. Because teams play uneven amount of games, the standings are based on points percentage.
San Jose had entered today’s play tied for third with the Gulls. The top three teams in the division are guaranteed berths in the Calder Cup playoffs while the fourth-place team would also qualify for the playoffs if it has a better points percentage than the fifth-place team in the Central Division.
Wagner was playing in the second game in his return to the Gulls.
Wagner began the season with the Anaheim Ducks, the Gulls NHL parent team, played three games for the Gulls in October, including a goal and an assist in a 3-0 victory over San Jose on Oct. 23, was recalled by the Ducks Oct. 26 and claimed on waivers by the Colorado Avalanche on Nov. 15 after going scoreless in 11 games with the Ducks..
Wagner scored four goals in 26 games with Colorado and was claimed on waivers by the Ducks on Thursday.
All four of Wagner’s AHL points this season are against San Jose.
The Gulls are 21-0-0-1 when scoring first.
The Gulls will next play Friday night at Valley View Casino Center against the Stockton Heat, the Calgary Flames’ AHL affiliate.
— City News Service
