Colorado left San Diego with a point after a frantic late push, but the Eagles couldn’t complete the comeback and fell 3-2 to the Gulls in a shootout on Sunday.
Down 2-0 late in the third period, Colorado found life in the final 3:25. Jayson Megna and Tristen Nielsen each finished with a goal and an assist, while Ilya Nabokov took the shootout loss after allowing two goals on 29 shots. On the other side, Tomas Suchanek picked up his first win of the season by stopping 32 of 34 shots and turning away four of Colorado’s five attempts in the shootout.
The game started with both teams feeling each other out, and San Diego’s lone power play of the first period came up empty. Colorado actually carried the shot edge into the intermission, 12-9.
San Diego broke through first in the second period. Matthew Phillips gathered a pass at the side of the crease and swept it in at 5:56 to put the Gulls ahead 1-0.
The Gulls extended that cushion later in the frame when Lucas Petterson drove through the low slot and redirected a centering feed past Nabokov, making it 2-0 with 6:26 left in the period.
Colorado’s rally finally arrived on the power play. With time running down in the third, Megna hammered a rebound out of midair and into the net at 16:35 to trim the deficit to 2-1.
Then came the equalizer. After Nabokov was pulled for the extra attacker, Nielsen buried a rebound with 1:09 remaining to tie it 2-2 and send the game beyond regulation.
Overtime settled nothing, and the shootout belonged to San Diego. Nielsen scored for Colorado, but James Hamblin and Ryan Carpenter answered for the Gulls to seal the win.
Colorado finished 1-for-3 on the power play and went a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
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