In hockey, coaches preach stay out of the penalty box and score when you have the man advantage.
The Gulls did both of those parts of the game fairly well at Stockton on Friday night in a 4-2 victory.
San Diego (27-18-5-2) scored on 2 of 9 power-play chances and took just four penalties, but did allow the Heat (29-15-4-3) to score on one of those power plays.
The Gulls will likely be far from rested when they play at San Jose Saturday afternoon. The Barracuda are the worst team in the AHL this season and the Gulls have taken five of the eight games between the two teams so far.
Stockton opened the scoring in the first period with a power-play goal at the 15:03 mark, but San Diego’s Josh Mahura tied it at 18:36 with his fourth goal of the season.
In the second period, the Gulls’ power play did all of the damage. Alex Broadhurst scored his ninth goal at 6:45 and Chris Mueller scored his 18th at 18:05.
The Heat put the pressure on in the third period when they scored a short-handed goal just 29 seconds into the final stanza.
Maxime Comtois put the game away for the Gulls with an empty-net tally with 26 second left.
Gulls goalie Anthony Stolarz (20-12-5) was once again stellar in net with 24 saves.
