San Diego started well with a three-goal first period in which the team outscored Tucson 19 to nine. Justin Bailey started the scoring by finding the back of the net just one minute and 43 seconds into the frame. His number of goals as team leader now stands at fourteen, beating last season’s twelve. Bailey later recorded an assist, giving him his seventh multi-point game of the season and 300th career AHL point.
It was a big night for that Cal Burke when he found his first goal of the season and first as a seagull. The forward has totaled 57-77=134 points in his AHL career and ended a 17-game scoring drought tonight. The momentum continued as Jan Mysak made the lead 3-0 just three minutes and seven seconds after Burke added the score.
After Tucson’s comeback, Mysak found his second of the night and took back the lead in the third. This is Mysak’s first multi-goal game and fifth multi-point game of the season.
Nikita Nesterenko found his second goal of the season and second point of the night to put the Gulls back within two. Nesterenko now has goals in back-to-back games and 2-1=3 points in his past two games with his added assist tonight.
“Reaction came in the third,” head coach Matt McIlvane said. “I think the summary of the game as a whole is the way you want to start, as quickly as we can. Then what this game was going to do was test some discipline and maturity from us. When you protect that kind of lead early, and I thought we got rid of it, then in the second period we spent time looking and we were able to see how dangerous Tucson is through the transition. But then it starts a great, challenging third period to see how we as a 60-minute match. We came out and responded appropriately.”
The net was again protected by Calle Clang who earned his third win in a row, stopping 27 of 30 shots. The goaltender is now averaging a 2.23 GAA and 0.912 SV% this season.
Sasha Pastujov assist tonight brings his leading points total to 9-20=29 and scores 1-4=5 points in his past five games. Noah Warren, Yegor Sidorov, Matthew Phillips, Ryan Carpenter, Nikolas Brouillard And Roland McKeown all also picked up assists to increase their total.
The Gulls look to keep their momentum going as they next face the Abbotsford Canucks in another back-to-back series this weekend at Rogers Forum.
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