The San Diego Gulls will try to increase their lead in the American Hockey League’s Western Conference finals to three games to one when the series resumes Friday at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
The Gulls defeated the Chicago Wolves, 3-2, Wednesday, with Kevin Boyle stopping 21 of 23 shots and defenseman Trevor Murphy scoring their final goal and assisting on Corey Tropp’s first-period goal.
“We’re humbled and fortunate to be where we’re at,” said Gulls coach Dallas Eakins, whose team finished third in the Pacific Division, then defeated second-place Bakersfield in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs and first-place San Jose in the second. “I think the difference in the game tonight was our penalty killers came up big.”
The Gulls killed all four of the Wolves power-play opportunities and got an unassisted shorthanded goal from Sam Steel three minutes, 34 seconds into the second period to break a 1-1 tie.
The Gulls killed a 52-second two-man disadvantage in the first period after back-to-back penalties to Kiefer Sherwood and Sam Carrick and a three- minute disadvantage in the second period when defenseman Andy Welinski received a match penalty for a check to the head of Cody Glass 5:03 into the second period.
Chicago would have been on the power play for five minutes following Welinski’s penalty but a simultaneous roughing penalty by Curtis McKenzie reduced the advantage by two minutes.
Eakins criticized the penalty call against Welinski.
“Andy Welinski doesn’t play a game like that,” Eakins said. “Andy is just going over, he’s got his elbow down, he’s just going to finish his check like he normally would. I was just trying to figure out who called the penalty because no one put up their arm and then there was a big huddle and suddenly we were down.
“Losing Andy in the game that early is a big blow to us because he’s a big part of our offense back there. He’s a big part of our power play.”
Murphy gave the Gulls a 3-1 lead with 8:16 left in the second period when he put a slap shot through traffic and past Wolves goaltender Oscar Dansk for his first goal of the playoffs.
“I was just closing the zone, having a good gap and luckily it just popped out,” Murphy said. “The puck was on its edge actually and I just took a slap shot and put it on net and it found its way in.”
Chicago, the Vegas Golden Knights AHL affiliate, cut the deficit to 3- 2 with 3:30 to play when McKenzie put in a rebound of a shot by Nic Hague after coach Rocky Thompson pulled Dansk for a sixth attacker.
Thompson pulled Dansk again, but the Wolves were not able to score the equalizer.
“Mistakes like that are going to happen, it’s about how you respond,” Tropp said, referring to McKenzie’s goal. “I thought we had a good response. We were able to keep them away from the net there in the last three minutes of the game.”
The Gulls, the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate, tied the score 1-1 4:56 into the first period when Tropp tipped Ben Street’s shot from the right point past Dansk.
Chicago opened the scoring 1:35 into the game when Tye McGinn put in a rebound of a shot by Tomas Hyka.
“We had a good start,” Thompson said. “Then they pushed back and I didn’t like how we finished the (first) period. We got some power plays and we executed poorly on them. It carried over into the second period and they were able to capitalize and score a short-handed goal, which is tough to recover from at times.”
Dansk made 26 saves. The Wolves killed both of the Gulls power-play opportunities.
The Gulls led 29-23 in shots, including a 12-6 advantage in the first period, before a crowd announced at 7,345 at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
“Our fans are excellent,” Eakins said. “I thought they were a big part of our game tonight.”
–City News Service
