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.
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
