TUCSON, Ariz. – The San Diego Gulls (20-12-2-2, 44 pts.) extended their unbeaten streak to eight games, the AHL’s longest current unbeaten streak, with a tightly contested 2-1 win over the Tucson Roadrunners (21-11-5-0; 45 pts.) at Tucson Arena on Friday night. With the win tonight the Gulls improved to 7-10-1 in January and saw San Diego climb over Tucson into third place in the Pacific Division.
San Diego’s eight-game unbeaten run (7-0-0-1) matches the club’s longest unbeaten stretch this season, a franchise record eight-game win streak (8-0-0) from Nov. 11 to Dec. 2, and is tied for the longest undefeated run in the AHL this season with Utica and Chicag. The current point streak ranks tied for second in club history behind an 11-game point streak from Feb. 19 to Mar. 16, 2016.
San Diego has now won nine of the last 11 games (9-1-0-1), and has earned standings points in 12 of the past 13 games (9-1-1-2) and 21 of the last 28 overall (18-7-1-2). The Gulls are also unbeaten in seven consecutive road contests dating back to Dec. 29 at Texas (6-0-0-1), tying a franchise best for points in consecutive road games (also seven, set Feb. 12 to Mar. 19, 2016).
San Diego has allowed only six goals in its past five games (discounting shootout goals) and has allowed the joint third-fewest goals against in the AHL this season (103, also Wilkes-Barre/Scranton).
Chris Wagner (2-0=2) scored both San Diego goals as the veteran notched his first two-goal game since Mar. 1, 2016 vs. Bakersfield and first multi-point game since Nov. 27 against Ontario (1-1=2). Goaltender Jhonas Enroth (6-1-0-0) won his fourth consecutive start since being acquired from Toronto and has posted a 1.00 goals-against average (GAA) and .963 save percentage (SV%).
With Nick Sorensen in the box for hooking, Anthony DeAngelo opened the scoring with a seeing-eye wrist shot through traffic beat San Diego goaltender Jhonas Enroth to give the Roadrunners a 1-0 lead at 10:02 of the first period.
The visitors put on the pressure during a 16-shot second period and finally broke through when Wagner buried Kevin Roy’s backdoor feed past Hill to tie the game 1-1.
San Diego’s momentum carried into the third period and the road club earned a power play at 8:28 of the last frame and made it count. After some quick puck movement on the man advantage, Wagner deflected Brandon Montour’s slap shot to give the Gulls their first lead of the night. Montour’s assist on the play gives him 6-7=13 points in the last nine games and a team-leading 1-6=7 points in five games against Tucson this season.
San Diego kept their foot on the gas the remainder of the period, outshooting Tucson 16-5 in the final frame and shutting down the Roadrunners’ offensive attack until the buzzer sounded. The tremendous defensive effort gave the Gulls their first win this season when scoring two goals-or-less in a game
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