The San Diego Gulls are heading back to the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup playoffs for the first time since the 2021-22 season after securing the Pacific Division’s seventh and final postseason berth.
It marks the fifth playoff berth in Gulls’ AHL history (2015 to present) and the first after a three-year absence.
The Gulls (33-27-8-4) will meet the second-seeded Colorado Eagles (41-20-6-5) in a best-of-three first-round elimination series. The winner advances to the second round that consists of the three first-round winners plus the top-seeded Ontario Reign, which enjoyed a first-round bye, that serves as the division semifinals.
The best-of-five third round serves as the division finals.
The Gulls’ 0.542 points percentage is the team’s best record in a full season since the 2018-19 campaign (36-24-5-3, 0.588) when it advanced as far as the Western Conference Finals.
The Gulls finished 29-35-5-3 last season in missing the playoff cut.
“We went into this year, and the thing we’ve kept saying is, we’re a group of winners with something to prove,” San Diego head coach Matt McIlvane said. “Earning the opportunity to play in the playoffs is a big step for everybody, and it’s been a lot of ups and downs to be able to get here, but I think it’s a cherry on top of all the growth that we’ve made as a club over the last bit. These guys, they’ve earned it.”
A total of 23 of the league’s 32 teams qualified for the playoffs.
The full playoff schedule features five rounds.
The Pacific Division winner advances to the best-of-seven Western Conference finals against the Central Division playoff winner. The best-of-seven Calder Cup finals pits the Western Conference champion against the Eastern Conference champion.
The Eagles will host all three potential games in the first-round series against San Diego. The second game is scheduled for Friday at 6:05 p.m. PT and a third game, if necessary, is set for Sunday at 2:05 p.m. PT.
Colorado won the regular season series between the teams with a 5-1-0-2 record. The Gulls won one regulation matchup (2-1) and posted two overtime shootout wins (5-4 and 6-5) — both by Tomas Suchanek. Regulation setbacks came by scores of 2-0, 3-1, 6-0, 6-3 and 5-1. San Diego lost five of the eight matchups in regulation.
The Gulls will be tasked to reverse a three-game losing streak in Wednesday’s playoff opener. After clinching a playoff berth, San Diego came out flat in a 5-1 loss to visiting Tucson on April 15 and dropped a 4-1 decision at Ontario in the team’s final road game of the regular season on April 17.
The Gulls bowed 6-4 to the visiting Coachella Valley Firebirds in Saturday’s Fan Appreciation contest in front of a sellout crowd of 12,920.
The hosts built an early 2-0 lead with aggressive play, surrendered the next four goals against the visiting Firebirds, rebounded to tie the game, 4-4, with long shots by Matt Basgall (his first professional goal) and Stian Solberg (his 12th of the season), but eventually succumbed on an empty net goal with 52 seconds remaining.
Coachella Valley out-shot the Gulls 32-25. Starter Calle Clang left the game at the 5:22 mark of the first period after being hit at the side of the net. Suchanek played the rest of the game, allowing five goals on 30 shots.
Clang finished the season at the team leader with an 18-9-9 goaltending record, 2.80 goals-against average and 0.897 save percentage. Suchanek finished 5-7-3 with a 3.31 GAA and 0.879 save percentage.
The Gulls enter the playoffs with three netminders of their roster: Clang, Suchanek and Damian Clara.
Sasha Pastujov finished as the team scoring leader with 57 points (21 goals, 36 assists), followed by Matthew Phillips with 52 points (16 goals, 36 assists), Ryan Carpenter with 48 points (17 goals, 31 assists) and Justin Bailey with 42 points (25 goals, 17 assists) and Tristan Luneau with 41 points (10 goals, 31 assists).
The Gulls finished the 72-game regular season with five 40-point scorers. Bailey led the league with nine game-winning goals.
Carpenter finished Saturday’s game with three assists.
Luneau paced San Diego against Colorado with six points (two goals, four assists).
Of note, two of the Gulls’ three wins over Colorado this season came on the Eagles’ home ice.
“Our goal is to earn a home playoff game, and I think that’s a wonderful goal,” McIlvane said. “We’re going there with the mentality that we have a job to do. We’ve got a lot of belief in what we’re capable of, and to be able to play in front of our fans again would be huge.”
The No. 3 Henderson Silver Knights (39-21-7-5) will host the No. 6 San Jose Barracuda (40-28-2-2) while Coachella Valley has the home ice advantage over the No. 5 Bakersfield Condors (37-23-11-1).
Flight path
Sam Colangelo netted his sixth power play goal, giving him 12 goals on the season, in Saturday’s regular season finale. Bailey notched his team-leading 25th goal and has posted five goals and six points in his last six games.
Pastujov ended the season with a career-high 57 points — tied for third highest in a single season by a Gulls skater — Brandon Montour also 57 points (12 goals, 45 assists) in 2015-16.
San Diego battled Colorado hard, splitting a key four-game series late in the season.
“We’re confident, we thought we played them hard the last time it was a four-game series,” Carpenter said. “We’re going to have to respect our opponent. A lot of it’s going to come down to how we want to play. These past couple of games, guys have been filtering in and out. There’s been some guys that haven’t been all year that have a bright future but still learning like systems and in and out. That was their full lineup tonight, a good team that’s pretty high in the standing so we thought we competed hard. Some guys had to play on a back-to-back with travel in Ontario last night. And so, we thought we had a good effort. It was too bad we came up short.”
McIlvane called the playoffs a key stepping stone for the club.
“It’s a big step,” the Gulls bench boss said, “like we went into this season and then our thought was that we had something to prove. There’s a group full of winners with something that we felt like we all had to show and being able to make it to the playoffs is a big step. There’s no question. And earning the opportunity to go fight, to keep playing, it’s a really exciting time of year when you look back at the whole season, certainly full of ups and downs and change, et cetera, but there’s a lot to be proud of.
“We have four lines that are going to be capable of defending, capable of scoring. I feel like we’ve got depth at the goaltending position. Our defense is deep as well. It’s just going to be a matter of being able to execute our basics at the highest level. We’re really excited for that opportunity.”
McIlvane, the fifth coach in Gulls’ AHL history, is also basking in a multi-year contract extension from the NHL parent Anaheim Ducks.
“Just feel very grateful,” McIlvane said. “Grateful, obviously, to Pat Verbeek (Ducks general manager), Rick Paterson (Gulls general manager) and the Samuelis (Henry and Susan, Anaheim owners) and I feel grateful to work with great people. Paterson, and we have an unbelievable coaching staff and support staff, and the guys are great.
“So, it’s a huge blessing for my family. Kids don’t have to change schools, and they love it here. I tell everybody, my family is thriving in San Diego, and it’s a blessing to be in this position, coaching this team in this building in front of America’s finest fans. So very grateful to keep, keep fighting and keep trying to pull the Gulls to the next level.”
“Matt has been an integral part in the development and growth of our players and prospects in San Diego,” Verbeek said. “Having increased San Diego’s point total each season and leading the Gulls to a playoff berth this year, this was an easy decision. We are excited about what the future holds for the Gulls with Matt continuing to be at the helm.”
San Diego’s 33 overall wins and 17 road wins are the most since 2018-19 when San Diego finished with 36 and 18 respectively.
McIlvane has led San Diego to a?standings?points increase in each of his three seasons as head coach, with a 20-point increase in 2023-24 (43 to 63 points), a three-point increase in 2024-25 (63 to 66 points) and a 12-point increase in 2025-26 (66 to 78 points) with three games remaining in the regular season.
During his tenure, 13 players have appeared in games for both the Ducks and Gulls since McIlvane was named San Diego’s head coach in 2023. Those players include current Ducks skaters Jansen Harkens, Drew Helleson, Tyson Hinds, Ville Husso, Ian Moore, Tim Washe and Olen Zellweger.
Of those 13, six have made their NHL debut during McIlvane’s tenure (Vyacheslav Buteyets, Sam Colangelo, Nathan Gaucher, Hinds, Moore, Zellweger).
Cal Burke scored the lone San Diego goal in last Friday’s loss in Ontario while Phillips scored in the setback to Tucson.
Calder Cup Playoffs
First Round
Best-of-Three
Wednesday, April 22
Gulls at Colorado
Friday, April 24
Gulls at Colorado
Sunday, April 26
Gulls at Colorado, if necessary
Gulls come up short in return to Calder Cup playoffs
Goaltender Damian Clara stopped 25 of-27 shots in his Calder Cup playoff debut, but the San Diego Gulls fell, 3-0, to the host Colorado Eagles Wednesday night in the opening game of the teams’ best-of-three first-round Pacific Division series.
The second-seeded Eagles carry a 1-0 series lead into Friday’s Game 2, also in Colorado, while the seventh-seeded Gulls will need a victory to avoid quick elimination in the team’s long-awaited return to postseason play.
“Colorado played a heck of a game, and I think that there were moments of the game where we were getting to the way that we wanted to play,” Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane said. “I think that combination of some penalty issues and allowing them too many big opportunities shifted the momentum, I felt, in the game. It’s still 1-0 and then, in a shift, we’ve got two breakaways and an open net that bounces over our stick. Then in that same shift, they go down and score, and so it was a big momentum swing in that part of the game. But I think for us, there’s opportunity for us to play better, certainly both with and without the puck, and that’s what we’ll be searching for.”
The Gulls were making their first postseason appearance since the 2022 Calder Cup playoffs and found themselves staring at a 1-0 first-period deficit on a power play goal by Colorado’s T.J. Tynan at 14:07. Assists went to T.J. Hughes and Tristen Nielsen. Shots favored the hosts 11-6 in the opening stanza.
The Eagles made it a 2-0 game on a goal by Nielsen at 2:38 of the second period. Jason Polin picked up the lone assist awarded on the play. Colorado posted a narrow 9-6 edge in shots in the period for a 20-12 advantage through 40 minutes.
There was no scoring in the third period until Taylor Makar’s empty net goal with 50 seconds to play. The hosts compiled a 7-6 edge in shots to close the final period in the game for a composite 27-18 total.
The visitors were charged with six penalties in the contest while the Eagles were penalized four times. Colorado went 1-for-4 on the power play while San Diego was 0-for-2. Two sets of minors were coincidental.
The third period was penalty-free, though the Gulls could not take advantage of the situation.
Eagles netminder Trent Miner stopped all 18 shots he faced to earn No. 1 star of the game honors. Nielsen, with a goal and assist, was tabbed as the game’s No. 2 star while Tynan grabbed third star recognition.
Sasha Pastujov, San Diego’s season scoring leader, keyed the Gulls with four shots while Sam Colangelo had three shots. Nielsen led the hosts with five shots.
“I thought we competed really hard tonight,” San Diego right wing Judd Caulfield said. “There’s so much care in the locker room, and our compete level is definitely there, but we just didn’t really play smart enough tonight. We gave them a lot of luck. Damian (Clara) bailed us out plenty of times, and we didn’t capitalize on our chances either. I thought we had a lot of good looks. (Trent) Miner played well for them, and we know we’re going to have to come back hard on Friday and finish our chances and limit theirs.”
Colorado limited the Gulls to single-digit shots in each period to hamper the visitors’ comeback bid in front of 5,089 fans.
The 6-foot-5, 207-ppund Clara, who appeared in three regular season games with a 4.04 GAA and 0.868 save percentage, played all but 2:08 of Wednesday’s series opener.
“He was great,” McIlvane underscored in regard to the Italian-born puck-stopper, the Anaheim’s Ducks’ second-round pick (60th overall) in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. “He made too many grade-A saves. All of a sudden there’s a big goalie sliding across the crease, making some gigantic saves. So, I thought that he was excellent. I think that he certainly gave us an opportunity to win.”
“He was great for us,” Caulfield said. “He was making key saves for us, giving us a chance to win the game. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have had the chance to tie it up late in the game. He was unbelievable for us. We’ll have to help him out a little bit more on Friday and not have to lean on him as much.
A potential Game 3 would be played Sunday afternoon on the Eagles’ home ice.
“I think the biggest thing right now is keeping discipline, to be able to stay positive, and also have real open minds about opportunities for growth, because we left some stuff on the ice today,” McIlvane said. “To be able to look at it with an honest perspective and own it so that we have a chance to move forward for the next game.”
“We know what’s at stake,” Caulfield said. “It’s a three-game series, so we’re backs against the wall a little bit for this game on Friday. But we know that we’ve been counted out a lot all season. So, we know that we’re going to have to come out hard and just show what we got. We’ve been working for this for eight months now. So, we know what we got to do. We’re going to go take care of business.”
In another first-round Pacific Division opener on Wednesday, the host Henderson Silver Knights fought off an early 3-1 deficit to tip the Sam Jose Barracuda, 5-4, in overtime. The third-seeded Silver Knights rallied with three unanswered goals to take a 4-3 lead early in the third period, but San Jose’s Igor Chernyshov scored with 9:19 to play in regulation to send the game into a sudden-victory period.
Trevor Connelly netted the winner at 38 seconds, assisted by Mayyas Sapovaliv and Braeden Bowman, as the game’s first star. Raphael Lavoie earned second star honors with two goals while Lukas Cormier was the third star with one goal and one assist.
Henderson out-shot sixth-seeded San Jose 39-22 and took the only two shots in overtime. Laurent Broissot stopped 34 of 39 shots he faced in the Barracuda net while winner Carl Lindbom made saves of 18 of 22 shots.
The game attracted 3,444 fans to the Nevada venue. Game 2 is Friday, also in Henderson.
Fifth-seeded Bakersfield hosts fourth-seeded Coachella Valley in Thursday’s series opener with Game 2 slated Saturday in Coachella Valley.
Gulls’ season ends with 6-1 setback in Game 2 of opening-round series
It took four years for the San Diego Gulls to make a return to the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup playoffs. It was a key moment for the franchise ,but the stay was all too short in the postseason as the seventh-seeded Gulls were swept in their opening-round series by the second-seeded Colorado Eagles, two games to none, in the teams’ best-of-three Pacific Division series.
Colorado won the opening game, 3-0, on Wednesday, April 22, and sent the San Diegans packing for home with a 6-1 victory in Game 2 on Friday, April 24.
The Eagles (43-20-6-5 overall, 2-0 in the playoffs) advance to the semifinals with home-ice advantage in the next round.
The Gulls ended their season with a final 33-29-8-4 record, 0-2 in the playoffs.
Both games were played in Blue Federal Credit Union Arena in Loveland. Colo.
The Gulls were outscored 9-1 in the two games.
“Colorado is a top team in our division,” San Diego head coach Matt McIlvane said. “They finished second. They’re very, very deep. I think they’re going to be pushing to come out of our division, I would imagine. With that being said, I think they’ve got a lot of offensive weapons. I think they play real well as a team defensively. I think that they’re difficult to play against, and they present a lot of challenges to you.”
The opening period featured three goals and a narrow 11-7 edge in shots by the hosts. Ronnie Attard netted his first goal of the playoffs at 4:32, assisted by Ivan Ivan and Chase Bradley. The visitors tied the game, 1-1, at 10:44 on a goal by Gulls season scoring leader Sasha Pastujov, his first of the postseason, from Noah Warren and Nikolas Brouillard.
But the Eagles came right back with the go-ahead goal just 1:07 later as Jayson Megna beat San Diego starter Damian Clara at 11:51. Tye Felhaber was credited with the lone assist.
The Gulls played with grit in the second period with a 12-7 advantage in shots in a bid to get back in the game. But the period ended scoreless as Colorado netminder Trent Miner, the No. 1 star in Game 1 with an 18-save shutout, stopped all 12 shots he faced in the period.
The Gulls held a 19-18 advantage in shot through two periods.
But the third period unraveled for the Southern California visitors as Alex Gagne tallied his first goal of the playoffs just 1:43 into the period to open up a 3-1 lead. Matt DiMarsico tacked on a power play goal at 7:34, his first of the postseason, off passes from Megna and Gavin Brindley, for a 4-1 advantage.
The Eagles took flight with an 11-3 edge in shots in the final period to build a 30-22 advantage in that category and a 5-1 lead as Sean Behrens tallied his first goal of the playoffs at 12:10. Assists went to Felhaber and Ivan.
Clara remained between the pipes for the Gulls while Miner continued to exasperate the visitors in the Colorado cage.
With their season hanging in the balance, the Gulls were forced to go for broke with the extra attacker. It got worse as Ivan scored into an empty net with 3:52 to play in regulation to up the Colorado lead to 6-1. Bradley and Keaton Middleton picked up the assists on the empty net goal.
It was clearly not the result San Diego head coach Matt McIlvane wanted as the Eagles stuffed four goals between the pipes in the third period and finished the game with five unanswered goals overall.
The hosts finished with a 13-6 advantage in shots in the third period and a 31-25 edge for the game. The Gulls finished 0-fo-2 on the power play while the Eagles were 1-for-3.
Clara, who played all but 1:21 in the cage, stopped 25 of 30 shots while Miner got the win with 24 saves on 25 shots.
Miner finished the short series with 42 saves on 43 shots (0.977 save percentage). Clara faced 56 shots in the two games with 49 saves (0.875 save percentage).
Stars of the game included a sweep by the Eagles: Megna (one goal, one assist) as the top star, Brindley (two assists) as the second star and Ivan (one goal, two assists) as the third star.
The game ended on a sour note as six penalties were handed out at the 18:59 mark of the third period: three to the Gulls (Roland McKeown, Justin Bailey and Roger McQueen misconducts for continuing altercations and likewise misconducts to Colorado’s Gagne, Taylor Makar and T.J. Tynan).
“It felt like we were building a lot of momentum in the second period,” Mcilvane said. “I think a bit of the first we were fortunate to escape with a one-goal game. In the second, we were attacking, and I thought we had them on their heels. What you’re hoping is going to happen is that you can build that momentum into the third period and then we got caught up the ice and had trouble on a sort-out, and then they score early. Two-goal game at that point, and you’re still expecting push back. They were able to find too many looks, and we were pressing trying to make something happen, and opening up too many things. But it’s for sure just disappointing.”
McIlvane pointed to the progress otherwise made by his team. San Diego’s 33 overall wins and 17 road wins are the most since 2018-19 when the Gulls finished with 36 and 18 respectively. San Diego’s 78 regular season points is up 12 points from the 2024-25 season where they finished with 66.
“When you zoom out, there’s certainly progress,” he said. “It’s hard to feel any of that right now because it’s such a sour taste. But it’s another step in the right direction and what is going to happen inevitably from this is we’ve all got a taste of what AHL playoff hockey feels like. And as we’re building, there’s lessons that we’re going to be able to grab from this moving forward, for what we’re going to need to do to perform in the playoffs.”
