Despite the youth on their roster the Gulls have not made a whole lot of vital mistakes this season. A couple of rare errors sunk them on Friday night.
San Diego lost to the San Jose Barracuda 3-2 in front of a sellout crowd at Valley View Casino Center that thought it was going to see another comeback win. The Gulls and their league-leading power play allowed a short-handed goal in the 2nd period to fall behind 2-0 but in the 3rd the offense woke up.
Or more accurately, Kevin Roy woke up. Roy scored two goals two minutes and two seconds apart for his second multi-goal game of the season. Roy is one of the hottest players in the American Hockey League. He’s scored eight goals in his last nine games.
But a mere 14 seconds after Roy’s equalizer San Diego made the critical error of the game. An errant pass across the middle of the ice hit the tape of San Jose’s Brandon Mashinter and he rifled it past Reto Berra for the game-winner. Two goals that the Gulls typically don’t give up and it ended up costing them.
“The shorthanded goal was just one that was bad luck. It jumped over our stick. But I don’t care,” said Gulls Head Coach Dallas Eakins. “On any night you can’t gift a team two goals. It’s going to come back and bite you.”
The loss drops San Diego to 5th place in the Pacific Division and temporarily on the outside of the playoff picture. San Diego and San Jose meet again on Saturday night at the VVCC.
