Rookie right wing Troy Terry scored the tie-breaking goal with seven minutes, four seconds to play as the San Diego Gulls defeated the Colorado Eagles, 3-2, Saturday evening at Valley View Casino Center.
Terry put in a rebound of a shot by fellow rookie Max Jones to extend his team-record point streak to begin an American Hockey League career to eight games. His eight-game point streak ties the longest active streak in the league.
Colorado (6-4-2-0) tied the score, 2-2, with 12:23 remaining when Andrew Agozzino bounced the puck off of a Gulls defender into the net for a power-play goal.
Agozzino scored a short-handed goal 2:06 into the third period, tying the score, 1-1, before a crowd announced at 10,508.
The Gulls (5-4-1-1) reclaimed the lead 55 seconds later when Jones found the puck in a scramble near the front of the net and put it past Eagles goaltender Pavel Francouz for his second goal in eight games this season with the Gulls.
Rookie Maxime Comtois, assigned to the Gulls earlier Saturday by their NHL parent team, the Anaheim Ducks, on a long-term injury conditioning loan, opened the scoring 2:26 into the first period with a power-play goal.
“It was fun getting back in the lineup and getting a game under my legs,” Comtois said after his first game since playing for the Ducks on Oct. 23. “I thought it went pretty well and it felt pretty good. It was a good team effort, we gave a couple goals that maybe we shouldn’t give, but in the end we fought back. It’s a good feeling.”
The 19-year-old Comtois had been placed on injured reserve Oct. 27 because of a lower-body injury.
The second period was scoreless.
Kevin Boyle (3-2-0-0) made a season-high 41 saves as the Gulls defeated the Eagles for the second consecutive night. Francouz (6-3-0-0) made 40 saves. Both teams took 43 shots.
The Gulls killed six of Colorado’s seven power-play opportunities. The Gulls scored on one of their five.
“Those are two hard-fought games,” said Gulls coach Dallas Eakins, whose team defeated the Eagles, the Colorado Avalanche’s AHL affiliate, 4-3, Friday night.
“It’s always amazing you can go into a weekend and win a couple of games 4-1 or 5-1 each and you feel good, but when they are that hard-fought, that close, and you’ve had so many guys sacrifice, it feels even better. I’m really proud of our group.”
The Gulls will resume play Friday by playing host to the Bakersfield Condors of Willie O’Ree Night, honoring him for his induction to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday. O’Ree played for the Gulls from 1967-74 when they were in the Western Hockey League.
— City News Service
