The San Diego Gulls team record-equaling eight-game winning streak ended Monday evening with a 3-2 overtime loss to the Iowa Wild, but their team-record standings point streak was extended to 14 games, thanks to Adam Cracknell’s goal with two seconds left in regulation.
Kyle Rau scored all three goals for Iowa (21-12-4-3), including the game-winner one minute, one second into overtime at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.
With both teams playing with three skaters, two fewer than normal under the American Hockey League’s overtime rules, Rau took a pass from took a pass from Ryan Murphy outside the Gulls blue line, skated into the Gulls zone and put a shot from the right faceoff circle past Kevin Boyle for his 11th goal in 38 games with the Wild this season.
Cracknell put a shot from the left faceoff circle past Kaapo Kahkonen for the tying goal. The Gulls were playing with an extra attacker as coach Dallas Eakins first pulled Boyle with 2:13 left in regulation.
Rau had given the Wild, the Minnesota Wild’s American Hockey League affiliate, a 2-1 lead with 11:17 left in the third period with a shot from the right faceoff circle.
Following a scoreless first period, Rau opened the scoring 11:16 into the second period with a shorthanded goal on a breakaway.
The Gulls (19-11-2-3) tied the score 4:11 later on Trevor Murphy’s power-play goal before a crowd announced at 5,242.
The Gulls led in shots, 30-26, but were outshot in overtime, 3-0.
Boyle (15-5-1-0) made 23 saves as his 10-game winning streak, the longest by a Gulls goaltender in their four seasons in the AHL, ended.
Kahkonen (11-6-2-2) made 28 saves.
The Gulls killed all four of Iowa’s power-play opportunities and scored on one of their five.
The Gulls, the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate, will next play Wednesday, facing the Texas Stars, the Dallas Stars AHL affiliate, at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
— City News Service
