Gulls hang on for AHL victory at San Jose

The San Diego Gulls (4-6-1-0) scored twice in the first and second periods and then held on for a 4-3 AHL victory at San Jose (5-5-1-0) on Friday night.

The two teams will play again on Saturday afternoon.

Brogan Rafferty and Vinni Lettieri scored in the opening 20 minutes while Jacob Perreault and Bryce Kindopp scored in the middle period.

The Gulls have earned points in four of their last six games (3-2-1-0) and six of their last eight contests (4-3-1-0).

San Diego allowed three San Jose goals in second period, but kept the home team scoreless in the final 20 minutes.

“Hockey’s how you react about it,” said coach Joel Bouchard of the third period when the Gulls have fallen apart earlier in the season. “It could be the worst thing that happened to you when you lose a game, or you can reflect and say, ‘What can we do better?’ So, we were back in the same situation today.

“With a young group, again, they’re just getting together and new coaching staff, it wasn’t perfect in the third, but I agree it was the attitude that I like. It’s like ‘OK, let’s do it this time.’ You know? It was the same message. The result was different because they guys were actually not giving anything to give position as best as we could.”

Perreault extended his career-high point streak to eight games with his second consecutive multi-point effort (goal and assist).

Perreault’s point streak ranks as the fourth-longest current streak in the AHL and tied for the fifth-longest this season.

Perreault’s current streak marks the longest by a Gull under the age of 20 (19 years, 223 days). Perreault ranks tied for sixth among AHL leaders in goals (seven) and points (15), while pacing San Diego in goals, assists and points.