Roadrunners Catch the Gulls Flat-Footed : Hockey: Phoenix jumps on San Diego in the first period and holds on for a 7-5 decision.

PHOENIX —  Gulls Coach Don Waddell doesn’t want to use fatigue as an excuse, but the Gulls looked like a tired team here Friday in losing to the Roadrunners, 7-5.

In front of a crowd of 9,484 in Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Phoenix won for only the second time in 12 games against the Gulls, who lost for the fifth time in the past six games. The Gulls were playing their ninth game in 13 nights and face the Roadrunners here again tonight.

The loss left the Gulls at 37-23-6 and with 80 points, one point behind first-place Peoria, which lost Friday but got a point for going into overtime.

The Gulls face Peoria in San Diego on Tuesday.

The Gulls played from behind from the start, Phoenix taking a 2-0 first-period lead and expanding it to 5-1 in the second. “We gave them some very easy goals,” Waddell said. “They had too many chances. We made a lot of mistakes. Everybody was thinking offense and not taking care of the defensive end.”

The Roadrunners jumped on goalie Rick Knickle for two first-period goals, Bill O’Dwyer scoring his fifth of the season on a power play at 6:43, and Frank Breault scoring his 11th short-handed at 13:41. All five of O’Dwyer’s goals this season have come against San Diego.

Ray Whitney cut the Phoenix lead to 2-1 a minute into the second period, scoring his 30th goal in 49 games when he knocked in a rebound. The Gulls outshot the Roadrunners, 21-7, in the second period but were up against a hot goaltender in Darryl Gilmour, who recently spent a month as backup with the Los Angeles Kings.

With Gilmour holding off the Gulls, Phoenix scored three more times in the period.

Ilkka Sinisalo got his 11th goal at 9:40, Sylvain Couturier scored his 16th at 11:50 and Marc Saumier his 13th at 14:17. Couturier scored 23 goals against the Gulls last season, but this was his first against them this season.

The Gulls cut the lead to 5-3 as Darcy Norton backhanded his 14th goal at 14:17 and Derek Mayer blasted a power-play goal from the blue line at 19:38, his fourth.

Phoenix added its sixth goal 34 seconds into the third period on Breault’s second goal of the night. Larry Floyd made it close, scoring twice for the Gulls in the span of 33 seconds, his 14th and 15th goals of the season, but Phoenix’s Rick Lanz scored an empty-net goal with 37 seconds left for the final score.

The Roadrunners improved to 22-36-7 with 51 points.