Gulls will try to Force their way past midweek loss in Saturday’s ‘Star Wars Night’ game

The San Diego Gulls will take on the Henderson Silver Knights on Saturday’s “Star Wars Night,” and they’d be wise to channel their inner Jedi.

Use the Force for defense, never for attack.

The Gulls fell flat in Wednesday night’s 6-2 loss to the San Jose Barracuda, surrendering their most goals in a game since Nov. 10 and snapping a streak of hot play.

The Gulls thumped the third-place Wranglers in back-to-back games last weekend in Calgary, winning 5-0 and 7-4. The Gulls are 6-3-1-0 over their last 10 games, climbing to within five points of eighth place in their division and within eight points of fifth-place Abbotsford.

Assistant coach Jason Clarke said it’s important that the Gulls move on from Wednesday’s loss. The puck drops at 6 p.m. Saturday at Pechanga Arena.

“We’re in a race to make the playoffs, right? If you are in the playoffs, you’re going to win and lose games,” he said. “I think we’ve got to be able to have that mentality today of just turn the page. Tomorrow is a new day, learn from this game and take it into our game on Saturday. The quicker we can forget about the loss and get back to the structure and habits we had that made us successful over the last 12 games, then we’ll be fine.”

The Gulls are led by left winger Pavol Regenda, who has posted 16 goals in just 31 games. Centers Andrew Agozzino (12 goals in 44 games) and Glenn Gawdin (14 goals in 43 games) lead the team with 34 and 33 points, respectively. Gawdin is the reigning AHL Player of the Week.

AHL All-Star Olen Zellweger and Ben King both notched their 10th goals of the season in San Diego’s Valentine’s Day loss. It was one of the few highlights in a rare rout.

The Gulls must tighten things up defensively against a team that has had their number this season. The Gulls are 0-3 against the Silver Knights (21-21-2-4), who sit just above San Diego (18-19-7-0) in the AHL standings. Henderson has outscored them 12-6 during those games.

The Gulls took Thursday off, then turned their focus to the Silver Knights.

Said Clarke: “I think all 20 guys would like to turn the page on this one and move on .. I think we’ll be a well-oiled machine on Saturday after the break.”