Early-arriving fans received a Sam Carrick Lucha Libre bobblehead doll Saturday night, but the Gulls’ leading scorer wasn’t in the building after being recalled by the Anaheim Ducks earlier in the day.
The absence of Carrick, who earned the fourth NHL call-up of his career by scoring 10 goals with six assists in 18 games as a Gull, left a void in the San Diego lineup as it prepared to host the Colorado Eagles.
After a sluggish start that saw them give up two early goals, the Gulls battled back, took a late lead, squandered it and finally won 4-3 in overtime on a smooth backhander off the stick of defensemen Jacob Larsson.
Larsson is one of several prospects who has seen time with the Ducks this season and chose a perfect time for his second goal.
It came after an energetic start to overtime that saw end-to-end, 3-on-3 action and a handful of nice saves from San Diego’s Anthony Stolarz and Colorado’s Hunter Miska.
The Gulls finished with a 44-32 edge in shots on goal and killed off all four of Colorado’s power play chances.
“The key tonight was we were patient and kept playing,” said Larsson, who came down from Anaheim recently and has played in two games as a Gull. “If we keep playing hard, good things can happen for us.”
It did not appear that the Gulls would need overtime dramatics when they went ahead 3-2 on a blast off the stick of defensemen Patrick Sieloff at 11:47 of the third period.
Sieloff’s first goal of the season was made possible in part by Chase De Leo digging in and winning a faceoff that led to a from De Leo to Sieloff.
Winning little battles such as those made the difference on a night when Colorado forward Ryan Wagner took advantage of a defensive breakdown to open scoring just 23 seconds into the game when he beat Stolarz with a wrister glove side.
Jayson Megna made it 2-0 Colorado at 1:54 of the first when he gathered a rebound and beat Stolarz top shelf.
Antoine Morand drew San Diego within 2-1 when he pounced on a loose puck in front of the Colorado net and snapped it past Miska at 3:38 of the second period.
Devin Sideroff tied the game with a rebound and putback with just 15.2 seconds remaining in the second period.
Notable
Forward Kiefer Sherwood (six goals, seven assists) remains out with a lower body injury while Andrew Poturalski remains out with a broken wrist suffered on Oct. 26.
Carter is a freelance writer.
