The San Diego Gulls celebrated the American Hockey League club’s second Mexican Heritage Night on Saturday, Feb. 3, with a 2-1 win over the Colorado Eagles at Pechanga Arena. The win came at a fortuitous time following a 2-1 loss the previous evening to the visiting Tucson Roadrunners to pick up two valuable standings points in advance of the AHL All-Star Classic break.
The Gulls saw their four-game home ice winning streak come to an end following the loss to the Roadrunners. It was a setback after collecting 14 out of a possible 18 points in their previous nine games.
The weekend split against Pacific Division opponents left the Gulls (16-18-7) with 39 points in the 10-team division standings – four points ahead of the last place San Jose Barracuda (14-22-7, 35 points) and seven points behind the seventh place Bakersfield Condors (21-13-2-2) and eighth place Henderson Silver Knights (20-20-2-4, 46 points).
The top seven teams in the division qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs. The ninth place Gulls will need to hurdle both the Condors and Silver Knights to play beyond the end of the regular season.
The Gulls have played 41 games and have 31 games remaining – five fewer than Henderson but three more than Bakersfield.
The Gulls are nine points behind the sixth place Ontario Reign. At the All-Star break, Tucson (28-13-1-1) and Coachella Valley (26-12-4-2) top the division with 58 points each. The Calgary Wranglers, last year’s regular season division champion, rest in third place with a 24-14-3-1 record and 52 points. The Abbotsford Canucks (23-14-3-2) and Colorado (22-15-4-1) are fourth and fifth in the division standings.
The Gulls recently took four out of a possible six points in a three-games series against the Canucks and beat the Eagles in a gritty must-win game on Saturday.
There is promise yet.
“It was awesome,” Southern California native Chase De Leo chimed in following Saturday’s victory. “I think if we play that way, we’re going to have some serious success the rest of the season. I like the way the guys stick up for each other. Obviously, we didn’t take much crap out there, so good to see the boys have each other’s backs.”
De Leo optimistically called the win “huge.”
“Moving forward, the rest of the year, that playoff push. Felt like that whole game, mostly the third period, has been like a playoff environment. Honestly, unbelievable crowd. Great to see Pechanga firing back. Special night and it was a fun game.”
Saturday’s game featured a number of activities supporting Mexican heritage, including a pregame tailgate, folklorico dancers and live mariachi music.
Gulls mascot Gulliver paraded the Mexican flag on the ice during pregame introductions.
The Gulls also wore specialty Mexican Heritage Night jerseys, decked out in green, red and white colors that included the Mexican flag on the shoulder panel. Fans had the chance to purchase replicas as well as other Mexican-themed hockey merchandise.
The San Diego Gulls Foundation also hosted a player-worn jersey raffle. Proceeds raised supported the House of Mexico Cultural Center’s scholarship fund.
Mariachi Continental de San Diego, based in Chula Vista, performed renditions of both the Mexican and United States national anthems. The flags of both countries joined that of Canada hanging from the sports arena rafters.
There was more local interest. Sonny Sandoval, who grew up in Otay Mesa and co-founded the metal band POD, dropped the ceremonial first puck. Sandoval, the band’s lead vocalist, explained his musical influences are founded in reggae, rock and rap.
POD (acronym for Payable On Death) has sold more than 12 million records worldwide.
Last year’s inaugural Mexican Heritage Night went well but last Saturday’s second event proved even more popular. A significant portion of the crowd was Hispanic as the sport builds on a new and expanding fan base.
Fans seemed to really get into the special-themed evening.
One fan wore a Mexican flag as a shawl. Another wore a specialized cowboy hat with steer horns painted green, red and white.
A pair of fans, Jorddy and Scott, roamed the concourse between periods in search of their beverage of choice. Jorddy wore a poncho. “I came prepared,” he quipped.
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Hot on ice
The game was well attended – 10,615 were in the stands – and fans didn’t have to wait long for the first fight of the night between the Gulls’ Nick Wolff and Colorado’s Ryan Tufte with just 1:53 elapsed in the contest.
Fans didn’t have to wait much longer until the Gulls scored the game’s opening goal at 4:10 as De Leo recorded his seventh goal of the season, 17th point, off assists from Glenn Gawdin (his 13th) and Trevor Carrick (his 24th).
Ole, Ole, Ole … !
The Gulls took a 2-0 lead on a power play goal by Andrew Agozzino at 16:40. The goal was the 10th of 2023-24 for Agozzino, his 33rd point. Pavol Regenda and De Leo notched the assists. The assist was the 11th for De Leo and the fifth for Regenda.
The Gulls entered the game trailing the fourth place Eagles by 12 standings points. The Gulls remained nine points behind the seventh place Henderson Silver Knights for the division’s final playoff berth.
Following the loss to Tucson, the Gulls were obviously hungry for a win by chalking up an early 11-3 shot advantage halfway through the opening period.
The hosts held a 14-6 edge in shots through the end of the period.
The Eagles cut the Gulls lead to 2-1 on a goal by Dalton Smith at 11:52 of the second period. Overall, the period belonged to the visitors with an 11-4 edge in shots.
Gulls starter Tomas Suchanek made three rapid-fire saves while under attack just over four minutes into the third period to preserve the San Diego lead.
The Eagles played with an empty net for the final 1:35. Three San Diego shots sailed wide and another clanged off the post before the final horn sounded to end the game with a Gulls victory.
The Gulls killed all three penalties against Colorado to extend a streak of now allowing a power play goal to nine games to establish a new club record for consecutive games without allowing a power play goal.
De Leo called it a total team effort.
“It’s a brotherhood here,” the La Mirada native said. “That’s what we’re looking to build and it’s like a family environment. So, when one of our guys gets knocked down, nice to see your brother has you back and gets right in there and makes everybody feel good and protected.”
“This shows the epitome of a team effort, and I loved watching us stick up for each other (in the game),” San Diego head coach Matt McIlvane said. “Colorado has got a physical imposing team, and we met it with five guys all the time. In the end, we earned the opportunity to win.”
De Leo earned first star of the game with his goal and assist while Suchanek was the game’s second star with 31 saves on 32 shots. Agozzino (game-winning goal) completed a San Diego sweep as the third star.
The assist was the 95th of De Leo’s Gulls career, tying him with Sam Carrick for the most assists in the club’s AHL history. De Leo (61 goals, 95 assists, 156 points) is now one point away from tying Corey Tropp (64 goals, 93 assists, 157 points) for second-most points in franchise history.
De Leo called it “awesome” to achieve the personal feat.
“Obviously, any time you get an accomplishment like that, it’s huge,” he said. “A lot of work has gone into this, not only me, but my parents, everybody along the way. So, got a lot of more work to do. It’s nice to have personal success but that comes mostly with team success. Excited to have a few days here to kind to recharge the batteries and come back strong and looking for a playoff push.”
The Gulls return to their home roost following a two-game set in Calgary for a Valentine’s date against San Jose on Feb. 14. The special-themed games continue Friday, Feb. 17, when the Gulls will celebrate Star Wars Night.
Viva los Gulls …!
All-Star notepad
The Gulls’ representative at last weekend’s AHL All-Star Classic, Olen Zellweger, played a big part as the Pacific Division All-Stars repeated as champions.
Zellweger showcased his skills in the 2024 AHL All-Star Skills Competition on Sunday by participating in the puck control relay, accuracy shooting and breakaway relay competitions. He helped the Western Conference All-Stars secure a 18-13 win over the Eastern Conference All-Stars.
A first-time AHL All-Star, Zellweger participated in the 2024 AHL All-Star Challenge on Monday. He was a key factor in the Pacific Division victory. The 20-year-old tallied three assists in the four mini-games, tied for most among all skaters in the event. All three assists came on goals that either gave the Pacific the lead or tied the score.
Tucson 2, San Diego 1
Last Friday’s game, played in front of 8,523 fans, featured a goal in each period. Tucson got the jump goal in the first period courtesy of a short-handed tally by Austin Poganski. The Gulls leveled the score in the second period on a goal by Jaxsen Wiebe.
Curtis Douglas scored what proved to be the game-winning goal at 13:49 of the third period.
The goal was Poganski’s 10th of the season. Agozzino and Zellweger drew the assists on the game-tying goal. The assist was Agozzino’s 23rd of the season while Zellweger collected his 18th helper of the season.
Cameron Hebig and Travis Barron assisted on the game-winner, Douglas’s second goal of the season.
San Diego out-shot Tucson 36-25 in an otherwise strong effort. The Roadrunners finished the game 20 points ahead of the Gulls in the division standings to show there’s not much separating the teams on the ice at this point of the season.
Last Friday doubled as Women in Sport Night, the second annual event hosted by the Gulls.
San Diego Wave FC goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan of the National Women’s Soccer League and Canadian National Team, performed the pregame ceremonial puck drop. Sheridan helped the Wave earn the top record in the NWSL in 2023, earning the franchise’s first NWSL Shield, given to team with the best regular season record. She also helped Team Canada earn gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was named the NWSL Goaltender of the Year in 2022 and earned the Golden Glove at the 2022 CONCACAF Women’s Championship.
