The San Diego Gulls started the night scoring first for the fifth time in their last six games. Justin Kloos buried the puck at 1:12 into the game after a centering pass from Isac Lundestrom. San Jose took a 2-1 lead after scoring two goals within thirty-six seconds with shots from Danil Yurtakin and Antti Suomela. The Gulls tied the game at two when Daniel Sprong recovered the puck and Blake Pietila fed Alex Broadhurst off the boards and he scored at 11:25. Less than a minute later Chris Wideman intercepted the puck, passed to Lundestrom on the wing who sent it across the ice to Sam Carrick with the one-timer for the power play score and a 3-2 lead. Following a successful penalty kill, Chase De Leo provided the pressure and Sam Carrick stole the puck and took the breakaway from center ice to put the Gulls up 4-2. The Gulls were able to maintain a two goal lead with a couple of nice saves from goalie Anthony Stolarz and a very nice defensive play by Wideman who dropped to a knee to block a centering pass with about a minute left in the first period.
The second period was not near as eventful as the first period, San Jose Barracuda applied plenty of pressure however and scored the lone goal of the period. Suomela poked the loose puck in front of the net to score his second goal of night to tighten the Gulls lead to one at 7:06 into the period. Stolarz had his save of the night with five minutes left in the second period when John McCarthy and Suomela both crashed the net, but Stolarz was able to cover the puck off the stick of McCarthy.
Gulls started the third period the same way they started the first, with a goal in the first two minutes. It was Sam Carrick with his second career hat-trick, and the first in San Diego for the AHL San Diego Gulls, in their fifth year. Alex Dostie, Kiefer Sherwood, Justin Kloos (shorthanded, second of the night) and Chase De Leo (shorthanded) added goals for the Gulls in the third period as the Gulls scored nine for the first time in franchise history.
Despite allowing three goals, Anthony Stolarz, 32 saves, picked up his fifth straight win as the Gulls moved to 5-7-0-0. The Gulls scored their fourth and fifth shorthanded goals of the season and ended a three-game powerplay non-scoring streak.
The Gulls resume play this weekend with a home-and-home series with the Ontario Reign. Friday night will be at Ontario while Saturday night will be in San Diego as the Gulls will host Star Wars night. Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 PM.