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By Phillip Brents
Though there was no downtown parade lined by smiling politicians and tens of thousands of adoring bandwagon fans to honor the San Diego Gulls after they captured their third consecutive West Coast Hockey League Taylor Cup championship, the team's achievement nonetheless burns bright in the hearts and minds of its legion of die-hard supporters and players alike.
"They all have a special feeling," expressed San Diego left wing Martin St. Amour in reference to the Gulls' three Taylor Cup championships. "The first year, people still thought we had a good team but said we had to come back to see if we could win it again. The second year, we proved we could do it again. The third year, we had to work very hard."
The Gulls defeated the expansion Tacoma Sabercats four games to one to in the best-of-seven Taylor Cup Finals to run their all-time league championship series record to 11-2. The Gulls finished 11-2 in three rounds of playoff competition, upending the Bakersfield Fog three games to one in the best-of-five South Division semifinals before sweeping the Phoenix Mustangs four games to none in the best-of-seven division finals.
Tacoma won its opening seven games before engaging San Diego in the Taylor Cup Finals -- ousting the Reno Rage three games to none in the North Division semifinals and then sweeping the Anchorage Aces in four straight for the division playoff championship.
The Gulls defeated the Fresno Falcons, three games to one, for their first title in 1995-96 and downed Anchorage, four games to none, for last season's WCHL championship.
San Diego goaltender Sergei Naumov was selected the Playoff Most Valuable Player for the second time in his Gull career. He finished his 12 post-season matches with an 11-1 record, 2.47 goals-against average and .911 save percentage. His 4-0 shutout of the Sabercats in Game 1 of the Taylor Cup Finals was the first playoff shutout in San Diego history and the first championship series shutout in league history. Naumov previously won the award during the Gulls' first championship campaign when he posted a 6-3 record, 2.46 GAA and .924 SPCT. Last season, the native of Riga, Latvia finished 7-1 with a 3.10 GAA and .890 SPCT in eight playoff contests.
In this three-year career with the Gulls, Naumov is 149-27-5 (.837 winning percentage).
The award was a fitting one for Naumov, who admitted he felt somewhat slighted when passed over during regular season balloting for the WCHL's Outstanding Goaltender award. A two-time winner of the award, Naumov overcame a slow start this season to post some remarkable numbers, finishing with league-bests for wins (39), GAA (3.08) and shutouts (4).
Tacoma's Konstantin Simchuk instead received this year's WCHL Outstanding Goaltender award, with Phoenix's David Goverde named to the league's Second All-Star Team. Naumov, however, made his statement in the playoffs by compiling an 8-1 record in sending both Phoenix's Goverde and Tacoma's Simchuk to early showers.
"Sergei rises to the occasion for the big games. He's at his best in the playoffs," explained San Diego coach Steve Martinson.
Also having his named inscribed on the Taylor Cup trophy for the third straight year was veteran Gull center Brad Belland, who for the third season in a row led the WCHL in post-season scoring by totaling 24 points on five goals and 19 assists. He ranks as the league's all-time playoff scorer with 59 points (15 goals, 44 assists) in 30 career post-season games. Not surprisingly, San Diego is 24-6 in post-season play over that span.
"Brad always cranks it up in the playoffs. He's one of our money players," noted St. Amour, another of the Gulls' 'three-peaters' who stands as the WCHL's all-time scoring leader. St. Amour finished second in playoff scoring to Belland this season with 18 points (11 goals, 7 assists) while tying Tacoma's Dan Shermerhorn -- the league's regular season Most Valuable Player -- for the lead in playoff goal-scoring.
If anything, the Gulls' third title proved that as much as the WCHL has worked to upgrade itself each season, San Diego remains the standard by which all other league teams are measured. In the WCHL's short three-year history, the Gulls remain the only team to win both the regular season and playoff championship.
San Diego set regular season league records in 1997-98 for most wins (53) and standing points (107) and led the WCHL in goals scored (347), fewest goals allowed (198, a team record-low), penalty minutes (2,680) and home attendance average (6,755). The Gulls' winning percentage (.836) was the best in all of North American minor professional hockey.
In the playoffs, San Diego proved it could win in any fashion -- skating to two clutch overtime victories while leading the WCHL in 11 of 12 post-season statistical categories, including goals scored (64), penalty minutes (542), power play goals (19) and short-handed goals (2).
"Tacoma had won seven playoff games in a row before they faced us. When you win three titles in a row, it's awesome," noted St. Amour.
Both the Gulls (53-10-1) and Sabercats (42-19-3) finished first in their respective regular season divisional races. San Diego earned home-ice advantage throughout the Taylor Cup playoffs as the league's top seed, based on its superior regular season record.
To be sure, the Gulls played with both fire and ice in their veins.
San Diego finished 61 standings points ahead of fourth-place Bakersfield in the regular season standings but dropped its opening playoff game -- on home ice, no less -- to the Fog. The end result of the 5-2 defeat at the hands of a Bakersfield team which had lost 35 of 38 prior regular season and playoff encounters between the teams was to ignite a torch beneath the two-time defending champions. The Gulls won their next nine playoff games, dealing aside the Fog in three straight and then galloping past the expansion Mustangs -- runners-up to San Diego in the South Division standings -- in four hard-fought contests before capturing the opening two games on home ice against Tacoma in the Taylor Cup Finals.
The Gulls defeated the Sabercats 5-3 April 30 to wrap up this year's championship series, winning two of three games in the Tacoma Dome after the series shifted to Washington from Southern California. Perhaps the only disappointing item about this year's title from the viewpoint of San Diego fans was that for the third consecutive year, the Gulls won the Taylor Cup on the road.
San Diego opened the Taylor Cup Finals with a 4-0 victory April 22 and skated to an exciting 5-4 overtime win over the Sabercats in Game 2 April 24 to take a 2-0 lead to Tacoma, site of the series' next three contests.
The Sabercats regrouped in Game 3, played April 25, with a 4-1 win to halve San Diego's series lead to two games to one. Tacoma broke through with three power play goals while Simchuk excelled by stopping 44 of 45 shots. But the Sabercats' hopes of sending the series back to California were dashed in Game 4, played April 28, when the Gulls de-fanged the hosts 7-3 on the strength of a five-goal, first-period explosion.
Depth was the Gulls' success story all season long. San Diego finished the regular season with nine players who scored more than 20 goals and had nine players who scored 50 or more points. In the team's 11 playoff wins, five players contributed game-winning goals, led by St. Amour with four and Belland, Kyle Reeves and Kevin St. Jacques with two each.
The 4-0 shutout of Tacoma in Game 1 of the Taylor Cup Finals -- the Gulls' seventh shutout overall on the season -- clearly set the tone for the entire series. Naumov made 37 saves and Martin St. Amour, Mark Stitt, Brett Larson and Stephane St. Amour each supplied timely goals to enable San Diego to take the first step toward winning its third consecutive WCHL championship.
"We didn't have many breakdowns. When we did, Sergei was there," noted Stephane St. Amour, whose short-handed goal with 1:40 left in the contest put the icing on the cake in the Gulls' shutout victory.
"Tacoma has a great team. We have a great team," he added. "Our biggest thing is that we have the best depth of any team in the league. We've got three unbelievable lines. Most teams rely on a line that can do it. We've got three and any one can score."
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