The Henderson Silver Knights ended their win streak at seven games after a loss to the San Diego Gulls on Wednesday night. The Knights fell 6-3 and are now 3-1 against San Diego this season.
It was a slow start for the Knights in the first period. The team didn’t get a shot until five minutes in. The Gulls got a man advantage early on when Viliam Kmec was called for tripping, and the Knights killed it. Henderson went on their first power play shortly after but had no luck in finding the net. The Gulls took the lead halfway through the period when Nikolas Brouillard scored on Cameron Whitehead. The Knights were able to get possession of the puck; however, it was never for long enough to get set up and shoot. San Diego took quick shots and found the net twice in the span of 1:08. Down 3-0, the Knights got a well-needed power play. Jeremy Davies scored to put Henderson on the board, 3-1. Less than two minutes later, Raphael Lavoie scored to bring the Knights to just one behind the Gulls.
Henderson came out stronger on offense to start the second period. Both teams increased the physicality of their game. Kmec found himself in the box for a second time, along with San Diego’s Konnor Smith, for five minutes due to a full blown, gloves and helmets off fist fight. The Gulls cut into Henderson’s offense by stealing many passes, limiting their chances at getting shots. On the other side of the ice, the Gulls scored yet another goal, taking a 4-2 lead. The Knights wrapped up the period with only five shots on goal compared to San Diego’s nine.
Needing two goals to at least tie the game, the Knights were still struggling to connect on passes. Thankfully, the Gulls were too so there weren’t many shots in the first half. The Knights had a power play and got two shots on goal. Yegor Sidorov scored on a breakaway, increasing San Diego’s lead 5-2. With Whitehead taken out of the net, Lukas Cormier scored for the Knights. Whitehead went back into the game for the last minute when Davies was penalized for high-sticking after a brawl with Ryan Carpenter. Carpenter was called for misconduct for 10 minutes and exited the game. The Gulls scored one more goal to win the game 6-3. The Knights had 21 shots on goal compared to San Diego’s 25.
