Antoine Laganiere had two goals and an assist and Anton Khudobin made 28 of his 34 saves over the final two periods as the San Diego Gulls defeated the San Jose Barracuda, 3-1, Sunday in San Jose.
Laganiere had the lone assist when Matt Bailey put in his own rebound to open the scoring three minutes, 10 seconds into the game with his third goal of the season. The scoring sequence began with San Jose goaltender Aaron Dell losing sight of Laganiere and passing the puck directly on his stick in the left faceoff circle.
Laganiere scored his 12th goal of the season at 10:09 of second period off assists by Corey Tropp and Bailey, and put the puck into an empty net with 25 seconds left for his 13th before a crowd at SAP Center announced at 3,939.
Ryan Carpenter scored for the Barracuda (28-22-7-3) at 15:56 of the second period, the only goal for the San Jose Sharks American Hockey League affiliate in six power-play opportunities. The Gulls, the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate, did not have a power-play opportunity.
Dell made 15 saves, one day after shutting out the Gulls.
The victory moved the Gulls (34-2-2-2) back into second place in the seven-team Pacific Division, .006 percentage points ahead of the Texas Stars. Because the division’s teams play an unequal amount of games, the standings are based on points percentage.
The Gulls are 5-1 at San Jose, 27-0-1-1 when scoring the first goal and 28-0-0 when leading after two periods.
The Gulls will resume play Wednesday at Stockton, the Calgary Flames AHL affiliate. Their next game at Valley View Casino Center will be Saturday against the Barracuda.
—City News Service