The San Diego Gulls’ run in the AHL’s Calder Cup playoffs came to an end on Monday night in Rosemont, Ill.
Less than a week after taking a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference finals and with two games at Pechanga Arena San Diego remaining, the Gulls shook hands with Chicago after the Wolves won three straight games, including Monday’s 3-1 victory to take the best-of-seven 4-2. Chicago will now face Charlotte in the Calder Cup Finals beginning Thursday.
“These players to a man truly loved each other, and I mean that in the word love,” said Gulls coach Dallas Eakins after the game. “I’ve never experienced a group like this and I think that’s why it hurts so badly.”
The Gulls were only able to muster four goals in the final three games and received splendid goaltending from Kevin Boyle, who shut out Chicago 3-0 in Game 2 in Illinois.
The focus was on Boyle — who finished with 25 saves — again on Monday as the offense just couldn’t find the net until the third period.
The Gulls certainly had their chances as they outshot the home team 12-5 in the first 20 minutes of action.
However, in the second period, the Wolves changed the flow and put pressure on Boyle with 14 shots on goal while all San Diego could muster was six.
It was still scoreless in the third period when Chicago scored twice in a span of 19 seconds.
Curtis McKenzie tallied his seventh goal of the playoffs at 12:28, and Keegan Kolesar scored his fifth at 12:47.
The Gulls seemed doomed at that point, but veteran center Sam Carrick scored a power-play goal at 14:51 on assists from Ben Street and Andy Welinski.
A little over 90 seconds later, defenseman Jaycob Megna had his possible game-tying shot ring off the crossbar, and Chicago’s McKenzie put the game basically out of reach when he scored his second of the game at 16:55.
“The goals that came fast,” said Eakins of the turning point.
“We’re able to respond and we talked about hockey gods or plays before the game there. Megna hits the post right after we score to make it 2-1. It won’t be a post that I forget for a very long time.
The Gulls tried to get back into the game by pulling Boyle with 2:30 left but they could never get another puck past Wolves goalie Oscar Dansk, who finished with 29 saves.
“We hit the post there late and that would’ve tied the game up,” said Carrick afterward. “We had our chances to score. Sometimes that is just the way it goes. Sometimes luck is not on your side. I’m super proud of this group, the way we battled to the end. It sucks right now, this feeling is not good. I think we’ll look back on it at some point and be proud.
“It was a great year. It’s one of those years that we’re going to look back on. One of the best years I’ve ever had playing hockey and I’m sad to see it end.”
It was quite a season for the Gulls, who were in last place in December in the Pacific Division, and made to the conference finals for the first time since moving to San Diego.
“It goes back to the group we had at the time,” said Eakins. “I think it goes to some of the changes that (Anaheim’s) Bob Murray made and the buy in of the group. The group got tight. I’ll go back to it, I’ve never experienced a real team like this that loves each other so much.
“They each other through the adversity of being in last place to scraping and clawing to get in the playoffs to playing 11 overtimes and getting here to today. It’s amazing.
“Tonight’s not a successful night, it’s painful, it’s hurtful, it’s disappointing and it’s all of those things because the tightness of the group. We just needed a bounce or two to make it in the finals.”
