The San Diego Gulls ended their regular season with a 3-2 overtime win over the Colorado Eagles Saturday at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Col.
The Gulls finished third in the Pacific Division and will meet the second-place Bakersfield Condors to begin the Pacific Division Playoff semifinals.
The Gulls and Condors will play a best-of-three series starting at 6 p.m. Friday.
“When you get towards the end of the season, I think there’s a level of urgency that comes in your game,” said Gulls head coach Kevin Dineen. “We felt like we had more to give as far as playing with a little more passion. I was really proud of the way our guys responded and did that.”
Andrew Agozzino, Josh Mahura and Bryce Kindopp scored for San Diego in Saturday’s win. Rookie Lukas Dostal stopped 23 of 25 shots to earn his 15th win of the season.
After the Eagles scored first, San Diego responded late in the first period. Mahura took a pass at the point and quickly fired a shot through traffic and past Colorado’s Justus Annunen for his sixth goal of the season.
Colorado reclaimed the lead minutes later, but Kindopp evened the scored in the third period, with his first career penalty shot opportunity.
The first-year Gull capitalized on the penalty shot, beating Annunen with a wrist shot over the glove, bringing San Diego even at 3:49 of the final period.
“Good play by Bryce – scores a big goal for us,” said Dineen. “He was a mainstay on our penalty kill all season long. He’s the kind of guy, that when you have conversations about areas of his game that we feel needs he needs to keep working on, he really takes it to heart.”
Kindopp, who has goals in two straight games, is tied for tenth among American Hockey League rookies in goals.
San Diego won the game in overtime, converting on a 4-on-3 power-play opportunity with 55 seconds left.
Agozzino, parked near the post, used his stick to deflect the puck up and over Annunen from a sharp angle to record his 13th goal of the season.
Andrew Poturalski collected a multi-assist game and continues to pace the AHL in both assists and points (9-34=43).