The San Diego Gulls closed out the month of November by recording standings points in eight of their 11 games during the month with five wins (each worth two points) and three overtime losses (each worth one point) against three losses (each worth zero points).
The San Diego team faced off December with three out of four possible points in their opening two games during the final calendar month of the year – a 3-2 overtime loss to the visiting Texas Stars on Friday, Dec. 5, and a 5-1 win over the same team on Sunday, Dec. 7.
Entering Wednesday’s game in San Jose, the Gulls were in contention for a playoff berth in a highly compacted Pacific Division with the top five teams separated by six standings points and the seven playoff hopefuls separated by 11 points. The Gulls (8-6-6, 22 points) were ahead of three teams in the standings — Henderson Silver Knights (10-9-1, 21 points), Tucson Roadrunners (9-10-3, 21 points) and Abbotsford Canucks (5-15-1-3, 14 points).
However, the standings will remain fluid with the Gulls sitting just one point ahead of both Henderson and Tucson and two points behind Bakersfield (10-7-4, 24 points).
The top five teams include the division leading Colorado Eagles (16-5-0-1, 33 points), second place Ontario Reign (14-7-1, 29 points), third place San Jose Barracuda (13-7-1-1, 28 points), fourth place Calgary Wranglers (12-9-3-1, 28 points) and fifth place Coachella Valley Firebirds (12-7-3, 27 points.
Eight of the 10 teams in the division have winning records.
Colorado has the fourth best record in the 32-team league.
San Diego head coach Matt McIlvane said the objective is to collect points in the standings, even if things do not necessarily go one’s way every game.
Despite sequestered in the bottom half of the division standings, the Gulls appear to be making strides passing the quarter mark of their 72-game regular season schedule.
The Gulls skated into the middle stages of the third period in Friday’s game against the Texas Stars holding onto a 2-1 lead on goals by San Colangelo (fourth goal of the season, seven in the last three games) and Tyson Hinds (his first goal of the season). But the Stars rallied with the tying goal at 11:54 of the third period by Artem Slaine (his seventh goal of the season) to send the game into overtime.
Tristan Bertucci netted his second goal of the season at the 52-second mark of the OT period to bring the Texas visitors full circle with the win. It was Bertucci’s second goal of the game to reap first star of the game honors in front of a robust gathering of 8,013 fans at Pechanga Arena San Diego.
The game marked the return of goaltender Tomas Suchanek in the San Diego net. He made 21 saves in his first American Hockey League action since April 21, 2024. He missed the entire 2024-25 AHL season because of a torn ACL.
Ryan Carpenter and Judd Caulfield each recorded two assists in the overtime loss.
“I think we had a hot start and then kind of slowed down a bit,” Hinds said. “They pushed back but I think overall we had some great looks. Any team could have won, but we need to find a way to win future games.”
The Gulls out-shot the Stars 14-5 in the first period but led just 1-0. “You get out of that period when the shots are 14-5 and its’s quite lopsided,” McIlvane said. “At that point, we had A-plus looks that didn’t fall. Then you go into the second period and it felt like the game was broken open, but it’s not. It’s still 1-0. We felt like we got away from the habits and things that were making us strong in the first period. The start was excellent as far as the first period as a whole. There was an opportunity for two points.”
McIlvane called it a “long, long recovery” for Suchanek, who finished his first season with the Gulls in 2023-24 with q 14-10-5 record, 2.92 GAA and 0.910 save percentage.
“He was highly competitive,” the Gulls coach said of the 22-year-old Czech netminder’s return between the pipes following six games (3-2 record) with the Tulsa Oilers, San Diego’s ECHL affiliate.
The Gulls’ start in Sunday’s rematch was lukewarm but heated up to boiling in what turned into a lopsided victory.
Swede Calle Clang, 23, got the start between the pipes and picked up his first win of the season following a pair of overtime setbacks with 18 saves on 19 shots
Braced by two early power play opportunities, the Gulls opened the game with a 7-0 shot advantage and led in the shot count 10-2 with 8:00 to play in the period.
The hosts took a 1-0 lead at the 14:16 mark of the period on Jan Mysak’s fourth goal of the season (13th point), assisted by Justin Bailey and Sasha Pastujov.
The hosts finished the period with a commanding 15-2 shot advantage but were 0-for-3 on the power play to keep the game close on the scoreboard.
The Stars offered more resistance with 10 shots in the second period but the Gulls added 14 more shots to lead 29-12 through 40 minutes, though the score remained 1-0 San Diego.
The Gulls finally got a power play goal in their fifth attempt, a double minor, at 6:42 of the third period courtesy of Tim Washe, his ninth goal (16th point) of the season, assisted by Bailey and Yegor Sidorov. The assist was Sidorov’s eighth of the season, Bailey’s fourth.
The Gulls continued to press the Texas cage but couldn’t convert the second half of the four-minute penalty.
The third period featured five goals, four by the hosts.
The Gulls made it 3-0 at 12:23 of the third period on a goal by Pastujov, assisted by Nathan Gaucher.
Shots at this juncture were 40-16.
The Stars pulled netminder Remi Poirier for an extra attacker with just under five minutes to play and the Gulls rocked the 5,019 attendance with a shorthanded goal into the empty net, unassisted, by Washe at 15:32. It was his second goal of the game and 10th tally of the season.
Texas didn’t waste any time by ruining Clang’s shutout bid at 16:11 on a power play goal by Kyle Looft.
The Stars net remained empty with the Gulls on top 4-1. The Gulls scored a second empty net goal at 18:20 by Nico Myatovic, assisted by Matthew Phillips and Washe (his third point of the game)
Final shots 42-19.
The Gulls swept three stars of the game: Clang (first star), Wahe (second star) and Pastujov (third star).
Washe tops San Diego with 10 goals while Phillips leads with 15 assists.
Clang, a fan favorite, made his return to the team following a leave of absence to take care of family matters. He thanked the organization for its understanding.
“It’s good to be back,” Clang said. “I think we were a complete 60 minutes from our side. We created a lot of chances like we did Friday night, we were in (Poirier’s) face the whole night, just a good, good hockey game from our side. Let’s keep building on this.
“The first couple of shots are always a little awkward when you haven’t been in the action for a while, but I think the guys made it easy for me. U saw most of the shots the whole night and I felt good from the star. Obviously, I felt I got better and better as long as we went.
“It’s a lot of fun. It’s enjoyable to watch when we play like this. I think the consistency is going to be our key this year because we can see how good we are when we play this way, we just need to keep doing these things, do them every night, then it’s going to be a run season for us.”
“Friday left a bad taste in our mouth and we felt we deserved a better fate that night, so tonight, we were right from the get-go, we wanted to set the tone and stick with it for a full 60 and I think we did a good job of that as a team,” Pastujov said.
The Gulls are currently skating with the luxury of having four impactful lines.
“Depth is a blessing that we’ve got, and for our guys to be able to wait their turn and let that depth unfold, it keeps guys fresh, and it’s certainly a formula for success.
“It felt like (Calle) made a few big saves, and that’s kind of all he needed. The rest of its was pretty basic. He went through a lot in this last month. I didn’t know yesterday who we were going to play. I kind of had my eye on him in practice and he was sending me a message that he was ready to do, and he showed it again today.
“There’s not too many games left until the Christmas brerak. This is a point in the season where if you can sustain focus, there’s opportunities there. So, we know what our matchups look like. We know how important these games are.”
The Gulls host Henderson for a two-game series Friday-Saturday, Dec. 12-13, at Pechanga Arena. The Gulls’ annual Teddy Bear Toss is Saturday, 6 p.m. face-off. Fans are encouraged to bring wrapped toys to the game and toss them onto the ice following the Gulls’ first goal of the game. The toys will be donated to various charities.
Note: The Gulls defeated the Barracuda, 3-1, on Wednesday to earn points in all three games played in December and points in eight of their last 10 games and in 11 of their last 14 games.
Goalscorers in Wednesday’s game included Judd Caulfield and Justin Bailey while Sasha Pastujov and Ryan Carpenter each recorded assists and goaltender Calle Clang backstopped his second consecutive win with 32 saves on 33 shots.
