Gameday Preview: Texas Stars at San Diego Gulls

Texas Stars 5-6-0-1, 11 pts, 0.458 #6 Pacific Division

at

San Diego Gulls 5-4-1-0, 11 pts, 0.550 #5 Pacific Division

November 8th at 9:00 PM

Valley View Casino Center, San Diego, CA

Seasons are made up of moments. Tonight might be one of the biggest yet for this team.

Facing a squad that left them beaten and bloody (even though they took the victory), Texas is at a turning point. They're on a three-game skid and rank last in the league in both power play and penalty kill. Both goalies have GAAs over 3 and save percentages significantly under .900. Travis Morin is scoring as always, but there are several question marks on offense. Justin Dowling has a single assist in ten games. Denis Gurianov has six assists but no goals and a minus-7 rating and has seemed invisible at times on the ice. Recently assigned Julius Honka is without a point in three games, which doesn't seem like much but his stats would suggest he'd at least have an assist to his credit at this point.

(Credit: Texas Stars)

The competition hasn't been exceptionally stiff. Stockton is a good team but Bakersfield and San Jose were both winnable games on paper. San Diego has the same 11 points as Texas.

The turning point comes here. If Texas can get a point here, score a power play goal or keep the sheet clean on the PK, it would show life. If not, the weekend series against Grand Rapids could prove very painful.

Stars injury/call up report:
Dickinson, Elie (call up)

Gulls Web Resources:
Website: sandiegogulls.com
Twitter: @SDGullsAHL
Twitter: @619sports (PBP)
Twitter: @danarelAHL