The San Diego Gulls allowed four third-period goals in a 5-2 loss to the Tucson Roadrunners Saturday evening at Valley View Casino Center, their second loss in their past 12 games.
The Gulls led 2-1 entering the final period on Nic Kerdiles’ two second-period goals. The Roadrunners tied the score three minutes, five seconds into the third period when a shot from the point by their oldest player, 34-year-old defenseman Zbynek Michalek, went past screened Gulls goaltender Jhonas Enroth.
Tucson took a 3-2 lead with 7:26 left on center Ryan MacInnis’ wrist shot. The Roadrunners increased their lead to 4-2 with 4:24 remaining on right wing Branden Troock’s first goal in his four games since being acquired Feb. 1 in a four-player trade with the Texas Stars.
Laurent Dauphin scored an empty-net goal with 49 seconds left for Tucson, the Arizona Coyotes American Hockey League affiliate.
Former Gull Chris Muller scored the first of the Roadrunners five unanswered goals with a power-play goal with 1:36 left in the third period. Enroth made 21 saves in his second loss in 12 games since being loaned to the Gulls by their NHL parent team, the Anaheim Ducks on Jan. 10, the same day they acquired him from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for a seventh-round choice in the 2018 draft.
Goaltender Adin Hill made 17 of his 36 saves in the third period.
“I thought their goalie was incredible in the third period,” Gulls coach Dallas Eakins said.
The Gulls (28-14-2-2) were scoreless on their five power-play opportunities and killed two of Tucson’s three. The Gulls had been 19-0-1-0 when leading after two periods entering Saturday’s play.
The Gulls were 4-0-0-1 against the Roadrunners before Saturday. The victory ended a five-game losing streak for Tucson (22-18-5-0).
“It’s huge to get a win,” Roadrunners coach Mark Lamb said. “When you’re on a losing streak a lot of good things have to happen for you to get out of it.”
“When you win against the best team in the league pretty much, it’s a real huge character win. A win is a win, it doesn’t matter against who, but when you’re playing against a team like San Diego, I think it makes it a little sweeter.”
The Gulls will next play Friday at Valley View Casino Center against Texas, the Dallas Stars AHL affiliate.
— City News Service
