It seemed, at the time, like a play that could define the season.

With 14:06 left in the first period of Game 4 of the Gulls’ first-round playoff series against the Texas Stars, Brandon Montour chased a Stars forward toward the net.

“The guy tried to take me wide there, and I think I gave him a little shove,” Montour remembered after practice on Tuesday at the Poway Ice Arena.

Seconds later, Montour crashed into goalie Anton Khudobin, as both players fell onto the ice and the net broke loose. Montour appeared to hit the post. (“I don’t know if my head hit the post or not,” he said Tuesday.)


It was a vicious collision, less than six minutes into the Gulls’ most important game of the season. As trainers attended to the two players, it was natural to assume the worst.

“Everybody,” Joseph Cramarossa said, “was a little worried there when two of our top guys go down.”

“You don’t want to lose two players like that way in one single play,” coach Dallas Eakins said.

Khudobin waddled off the ice and did not return. He is day-to-day with an upper body injury as the Gulls prepare to face the Ontario Reign in Game 1 of their second-round series on Thursday night in Ontario.


But Montour, an agile 22-year-old defenseman who was named to the AHL’s First All-Star team as a rookie this season, returned at the start of the next period and played a pivotal role in the Gulls’ 6-2 series-clinching win.

“I wanted to come back,” said Montour, adding that he had a slight headache after the play. “We had lots of game left. And it was a close game at that point, so I thought I was ready to go in that second period and try it out.”

“It was a crucial moment of the game: We were coming back out to start the second period five-on-three,” Eakins said. “Our power play’s been good this year, and he’s been a big part of that. And just having that group together was critical.”

In the locker room during the first intermission, Eakins approached Montour.


“When I asked him if he was coming back, he said he was,” Eakins recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, good. We’ve got a five-on-three, and these next two minutes are going to be (the) game.’ And they certainly turned out to be that.”

On the ensuing two-man advantage, with Montour on the ice again, Chris Mueller scored seven seconds into the period. Then, 70 seconds later, Montour assisted on Antoine Laganiere’s power-play goal as the Gulls took a two-goal lead and rode it to a win.

“When Monty skated back on,” Cramarossa said, “I think everyone was excited because he’s a big part of our team.”

rob.harms@sduniontribune.com