Nic Kerdiles and Brandon Montour each had a goal and two assists as the San Diego Gulls defeated the San Antonio Rampage, 6-2, Wednesday at Valley View Casino Center for their fourth consecutive victory.
Kerdiles assisted on Ondrej Kase’s goal three minutes, 47 seconds into the second period that broke a 1-1 tie. Kerdiles’ short-handed goal at 14:04 of the second period gave the Gulls (32-20-2-2) a 4-1 lead.
Montour and Kerdiles both assisted on Chris Mueller’s power-play goal 59 seconds into the third period before a crowd announced at 5,934.
Montour put a slap shot from just inside the blue line past Roman Will 7:17 into the second period, increasing the Gulls lead to 3-1. Montour assisted on Chris Wagner’s goal that opened the scoring 12:57 into the first period. The Gulls are 25-0-1-1 when scoring first.
Brian McGrattan, the Gulls’ oldest player at 34, scored the team’s final goal 3:51 into the third period. He also fought San Antonio right wing Daniel Maggio in the first period, drawing a major penalty and a 10-minute misconduct for continuing the altercation.
In a Jan. 19 game in San Antonio, McGrattan was punched in the face by Maggio, fell limply to the ice, laying unconscious for several minutes. He was taken off the ice on a stretcher and brought to a hospital. McGrattan missed the next eight games.
Gulls center Joseph Cramarossa and Rampage left wing Reid Petryk both drew five-minute major penalties for their third-period fight.
Garry Nunn scored in the first period and Cody Corbett had a power-play goal in the third period for San Antonio (24-32-8-0), the Colorado Avalanche’s AHL affiliate, which lost its seventh consecutive game.
Gulls goaltender Anton Khudobin made 35 saves and is 11-1-1-1 in his last 14 starts.
Rampage goaltender Reto Berra stopped 12 of the 13 shots he faced in the first period, then was replaced at the start of the second period because of a lower-body injury suffered late in the first period. Will stopped 15 of 20 shots over the final two periods.
The Gulls, the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate, have a point in 11 consecutive games with nine victories, an overtime loss and a shootout loss. The Gulls are 6-0-0 against San Antonio
The Gulls moved into second place in the AHL’s Pacific Division with a .607 points percentage, passing the Texas Stars, who dropped to .600 with a 4-1 loss to Grand Rapids.
The Gulls will play host to the Bakersfield Condors, the Edmonton Oilers AHL affiliate, Friday at Valley View Casino Center.
—City News Service