The San Diego Gulls have been one of the hottest teams in the American Hockey League. Coach Joel Bouchard had a vision for his club, and it is coming into fruition.
Alex Limoges scored three goals for a hat trick, Brayden Tracey chipped in another, goalie Olle Eriksson Ek made 29 saves and the Gulls (25-25-2-1) earned a 4-3 win over Tucson (18-30-1-1) for their sixth win in seven games.
“We want to play fast, we want to play hard,” said Bouchard. “It’s about creating an attitude. And we are doing that.”
Bouchard mixes old school tough with new school intelligence and players like Limoges, who was undrafted out of Penn State, are making his vision happen.
“It’s the process of us playing the way we want to play and then pushing forward and it’s pro hockey,” Bouchard said. “It’s not always perfect but you got to push with the structure and the way we want to be playing against a team I think we see results. This is just the result of us pushing.”
Limoges, from Winchester Virginia, is getting more dangerous by the day.
The 6-foot, 207-pounder is consistently in the front of the opposing net, buzzing around causing trouble and the result was his first professional hat trick.
Getting the call
Goalie Lukas Dostal and defensemen Brendan Guhle got the NHL call up to Anaheim Wednesday.
Dostal has been among the most impressive AHL goalies for a stretch, consistently showing calm talent in net.
And he may be the Ducks netminder of the future.
Dostal’s call up created an opportunity for Eriksson Ek, a talented netminder from Sweden. Ek has made 34 AHL starts and has a 5-11 record with a 3.21 goals against average and a .891 save percentage.
Eriksson Ek earned the win Wednesday night.
Killing is good hockey
The Gulls penalty killing unit has been hot of late, allowing one goal in 20 opponent attempts.
“We’ve shown a lot of maturity,” defensemen Axel Anderson said. “We’re a young team, but we play tight and try not to give them anything so I guess that’s the key.”
Carter is a freelance writer.
