The San Diego State University Aztecs and San Diego Gulls are set to face off their remaining games in their 2024-25 seasons.
SDSU has nine games remaining on its schedule and sits 0-14 in its first year in Western Collegiate Hockey League play while the Gulls have been stirring the pot in a bid to break out of the bottom third of the American Hockey League’s Pacific Division.
The Aztecs (4-15-0-0-1) have been idle since dropping a pair of home games – 8-0 and 5-2 — at the Kroc Center Ice Arena Dec. 6-7 to the University of Utah. The Utes piled up a 60-23 shot advantage in the first game against two SDSU netminders. Liam Dee stopped 45 of 53 shots while Brody Hsaio smothered all seven shots he faced in 8:40.
Utah led 1-0 after the first period (23-5 shot advantage) before breaking open the game with six second period tallies.
The Utes again dominated the shot count in the rematch with a 68-24 edge. The visitors led 22-8 in shots in the first period but found themselves in a scoreless draw. Mason Brown opened scoring at 7:30 in the second period for a 1-0 SDSU lead, assisted by Marcus Kim. Brown scored an unassisted goal at 11:01 to push the Aztecs to a 2-0 lead.
Utah led in shots in the second period 23-8 and rallied with a pair of power play goals for a 2-2 draw through 40 minutes. Utah scored the only three goals in the third period. Hsiao racked up 63 saves on 68 shots in the setback while winner Lawrence Letey made 22 stops on 24 shots he faced.
Former SDSU goaltender Garrett Fuller did not face his former team in the two games at the Kroc Center.
Cameron Ferraz continues to lead SDSU in season scoring with 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in 16 games, followed by Brown with 11 points (six goals, five assists) in 16 games and Lucas Bellig with 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in 20 games. Kim ranks fourth in team scoring with 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in 18 games.
SDSU resumes WCHL play with a pair of games Jan. 17-18 against the University of Oklahoma before traveling to Las Vegas for a pair of contests against nationally-ranked UNLV on Jan. 23-24.
The Aztecs host the University of Arizona Feb. 7-8 and UNLV Feb. 14-15. The final regular season game is Feb. 21 against UC San Diego at the Kroc Center.
UNLV is ranked third in the latest M1 ranking while Oklahoma is ranked 15th and Arizona is ranked 16th.
Several WCHL teams have favorable rankings to qualify for this year’s national championship tournament. Utah is ranked ninth while Grand Canyon University is ranked 13th.
Home Sweet Home
With eight home games in January, hockey fans will get to see a lot of hard-hitting action from the hometown Gulls as they approach the midpoint of their 2024-25 AHL season.
Overall, the Gulls (10-18-3-2) will play 12 games during the month, including four road matchups.
The local ice team didn’t waste any time facing off the 2025 calendar portion of their schedule by hosting the San Joe Barracuda in a special New Year’s Day evening game. The Gulls trailed 1-0 through the first period but took a 2-1 lead into the third period with a strong second-period showing.
The hosts extended their lead to 3-1 on a penalty shot by Jan Mysak. But the Barracuda, ranking second in the Pacific Division standings, rallied with two third period goals to send the game into overtime.
San Jose won, 4-3, on an overtime goal by Lucas Carlsson at the 1:00 mark of the five-minute three-on-three period. It was his second goal of the game.
Sam Colangelo scored his 12th goal of the season at the 19:21 mark of the first period to knot the score, 1-1, while Nico Myatovic scored at the 17:31 mark of the second period to stake the hosts to a 2-1 lead.
The Barracuda finished the contest, witnessed by a crowd of 4,957, with a 29-27 shot advantage. Calle Clang made 25 saves on 29 shots to see his record drop to 7-10-2 on the season while San Jose’s Georgi Romanov stopped 24 of 27 shots to improve to 7-5-1.
The Gulls got right back on the bus for a pair of road games over the weekend, dropping a 4-1 decision in Ontario to the host Reign, one of the hottest teams in the league at the moment with an 8-1-0-1 record in their last 10 games. The Gulls zipped over to Palm Desert for a Sunday matchup against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The San Diego visitors trailed 2-0 before rallying to send the game into overtime. But the Firebirds prevailed, 3-2, in the tiebreaker on a goal 1:00 into the overtime.
It was the Gulls’ second OT game in three outings and the seventh overall for the team this season.
Mysak notched the lone goal against Ontario (his seventh of the season) while Sasha Pastujov netted this seventh goal and Colangelo scored his 13th goal in the OT loss to Coachella Valley. Colangelo tops AHL rookies in goals scored and the Gulls in scoring with 22 points (13 goals, nine assists).
Mysak and Roland McKeown both picked up assists against the Firebirds, the 11th this season for McKeown.
Oscar Dansk stopped 29 of 33 shots against Ontario while Calle Clang stopped 23 shots against Coachella Valley.
The Gulls faced off a five-game homestand on Wednesday with a non-divisional game against the Iowa Wild. Other upcoming games include Jan. 10-11 against the Tucson Roadrunners, Jan. 15 in a rematch with the Wild and Jan.18 against the division-leading Calgary Wranglers.
The Gulls hit the road for games Jan. 25-26 in Calgary, then host the Toronto Marlies Jan. 29 and Jan. 31 to end the month prior to the AHL All-Star Classic Feb. 2-3 in Coachella Valley.
The Gulls ended the 2024 calendar year with a pair of home games Dec. 27 (4-3 shootout win over Ontario) and Dec. 28 (5-3 loss to Bakersfield) following a four-game road trip (Dec. 16-21) to Tucson and Colorado that resulted in a 0-4 showing.
The Gulls reeled off a five-game points streak in early December but have since gone 0-3-2. Including the four road losses, the Gulls entered Wednesday’s cross-divisional game against the Wild 2-6-2 in their last 10 games (two regulation wins and two overtime losses).
The locals have been battling and picking up points (an overtime or shootout loss counts as one point in the standings) but not necessarily gaining ground on the teams ahead of them.
Seven of the 10 teams in the Pacific Division qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs. The Gulls were seven points off the cut following their brief two-game weekend road swing.
“We weren’t proud of our effort in Ontario,” Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane said. “We gave them far too much, and when we take a look deeper into the game, there was plenty of opportunity we felt for improvement. I thought the guys responded well to the challenge today. We were down until the wee moments of the game, but we had belief, and for the most part, the guys played the right way the whole game. And when you do that, eventually you get rewarded. And that’s the lesson for us here today, is that if we can just give ourselves a shot by being competitive, playing the right way, eventually we can (out-)last teams.
“Our message was that eight shots isn’t going to get it done through two periods, and we had to find ways to get to the net. And sometimes the biggest skill is just finding the way to get it to the net. But we felt like if we could push, we could push into them, and we knew they were coming off of a back-to-back, and we took advantage of that. Once we started to get a little bit of momentum, it felt like we kept it, and we’re able to sustain it and keep belief. The guys, they earned a point (against the Firebirds).
“We love playing in front of America’s finest fans, and when we play to our identity, we can beat anybody, and we can certainly play with teams. And when we get away from it, it feels like it did in Ontario. Our formula is very clear for us. And when we stick to it, we got a chance in every game.”
GULLS SCORE IN EVERY PERIOD, MUZZLE WILD IN 5-1 VICTORY
The Gulls faced off their current five-game homestand with a dominant 5-1 victory over the Iowa Wild Wednesday, Jan. 8, at Pechanga Arena San Diego. The hosts scored in every period to record seven points in their last eight home games (5-1-1-1).
Carson Meyer earned first star of the game with two goals, including a goal just 17 seconds into the game while tacking on a power play goal in the second period. Sasha Pastujov received second star billing with four assists. Goaltender Calle Clang nailed down third star honors with 38 saves on 39 shots to improve his season record to 8-10-3.
Meyer netted his fourth and fifth goals of the season after missing nine games with an injury. Pastijov and Tristan Luneau assisted on Meyer’s first-minute goal while Nico Myatovic and Pavol Regenda drew the assists on Meyer’s second goal.
The Gulls led 1-0 through the first period and 3-0 through two periods. Yegor Sidorov scored his 10th goal of the season at 9:47 of the second period on a power play.
Both San Diego goals in the second period came with the man-advantage. Ryan Carpenter and Pastujov assisted on Sidorov’s 2-0 goal to face off the second period.
The Wild (11-9-2) made it 3-1 on a goal by Travis Boyd at 2:38 on a power play to face off the third period. But the host responded with unanswered goals by Rodwin Dionicio, his third goal of the season, assisted by Noah Warren and Pastujov at 7:00, and Jan Mysak, his eighth goal of the season, assisted by Pastujov and Judd Caulfield at 14:51.
The Gulls won despite being out-shot 29-19. Iowa piled up a 14-6 edge in shots despite trailing 1-0 to end the first period. The Gulls upped the ante with 11 shots in the second period but were still out-shot 13-11 in the period. The Gulls held on to record the much-needed victory despite being out-shot 12-2 in the final period. Clang stopped all 27 shots he faced in the opening two periods and 11 of 12 in the final period for a season-high total of 38 stops.
The teams combined for three power play goals – two by the Gulls on three man-up opportunities in front of 4,623 fans. Iowa scored one power play goal in four opportunities.
The win by the Gulls came at a fortunate time as the Henderson Silver Knights lost 2-1 to the visiting Ontario Reign on Wednesday to push the Gulls five standings points ahead of the Silver Knights. San Diego trails Abbotsford and Bakersfield by five points.
The Gulls will be looking to move up the standings with a pair of divisional games against the Tucson Roadrunners (18-12-1 this weekend (Friday and Saturday) at Pechanga Arena.
“Sometimes, just to watch the puck go in the net does a lot for a group, and we found a lot of different ways to score today, getting two on the power play, Roddy banks one in from below the goal line,” McIlvane said. “The game as a whole didn’t give us a ton of opportunities for shooting, but we certainly capitalized on the ones that we got.
“Carson picked up right where he left off. You can’t even tell that he’s missed any time. And getting on the board that early, that quick, and then finding a way to score another one. He had an impact on the game all the way through.
“Calle was rock solid. They have a team who throws everything to the net and that’s going to put a goalie to the test, that’s going to put a defense to the test. But Calle had the answer. He was calm and composed and thought he had a really strong game.
“I thought our last game against Coachella, we weren’t rewarded with goals, but we certainly had great looks. I thought the group took another step forward today, and all of a sudden they get rewarded. Hopefully they can keep this and build on it.
“Every game is a big game when you’re chasing and you’re fighting. Our big focus right now is get a little bit of rest and then get ready for a big battle against Tucson.”
“You score five goals, you’re going to win a lot of games, especially when your goalie is playing the way Clang did tonight,” Meyer said. “Thirty-eight saves and combine those two, you’re going to win a lot of games. It’s a great way to start the homestand here and I think it’s something to build off of.
“These are massive games. Obviously, we’re chasing down teams at this point, and second half of the season goes so fast. Playing division rivals, it’s all four-point swings. These are going to be big games coming up.”
