The Gulls trailed by three goals midway through the third period Friday night when Bakersfield’s Brad Malone grabbed Gulls forward Jacob Perreault from behind and dog-piled Perreault into the ice.
After a brief scuffle between a host of players from both teams, Malone made his way toward the penalty box while motioning to the San Diego bench.
As if saying, “What are you going to do about it?”
It was a humiliating moment on a rough night that saw the Gulls lose 5-1, their fourth loss in five games.
The Gulls (9-11-1-0) were outshot 32-21, beaten to lose pucks and unable to overcome a bad night from goalie Lukas Dostal against a Bakersfield team entering the night on a six-game losing skid.
The Gulls were coming off a 4-0 home loss to Abbotsford on Wednesday night.
“We were boys playing like boys versus men tonight,” Gulls coach Joel Bouchard said. “Right from the first period. They were physical on us. We didn’t push back. Had no solution. The whole team got on their heels. Saw it coming from the last game a little bit.”
Bakersfield (7-8-1-3) jumped out to a 3-0 lead with Devin Brosseau netting the first two, both of which came when a Bakersfield player beat a Gull to the puck.
The Gulls broke through late in the second period on a nice play that saw the puck go from Bryce Kindopp to Greg Printz to rookie Sean Josling, who smashed it home for his first career AHL goal.
However, that kind of crisp puck movement was lacking all night and Bakersfield regained full control on third-period goals from Raphael Lavoie and Philip Broberg.
One issue has been a struggling power play that went 0-4 in the game and has cashed in just two out of 34 chances in the last seven games.
The Gulls host San Jose tonight, a good thing considering that San Diego took four straight off of the last-place Barracuda in November.
“We didn’t have our ‘A’ game,” Josling said. “So, it’s put this one away and come back out (tonight) and play like we can play.”
Notable
Former Gull Jordan Samuels-Thomas, who spent two seasons with the club as part of a nine-year professional career, worked the game as an official. Samuels-Thomas is in his first second season as a full-time AHL official and has also refereed a handful of NHL games this season.
Carter is a freelance writer.
