The San Diego Gulls are now in the second half of their 2025-26 American Hockey League schedule following this week’s AHL All-Star Classic in Rockford, Ill.
Both goaltender Calle Clang and rookie forward Tim Washe represented the Gulls at this year’s All-Star Classic in Rockford, Ill. Both players, who were making their first appearance in the AHL’s midseason showcase event, helped the Pacific Division All-Star team find success with its third All-Star Challenge victory in the past four years.
Clang was voted the Top Goaltender in Tuesday’s AHL All-Stars Skills Competition as a member of the Western Conference team (Pacific and Central divisions) and was back in the net in Wednesday’s series of three-on-three mini-games to spear-heading the Pacific all-stars to the tournament championship with three wins.
Washe participated in Tuesday’s skills challenge in both the hardest shot, pass and score and breakaway relay competitions.
Clang stopped 16 of 18 shots to win the top goaltender award. He stopped nine of 10 shots in the rapid-fire competition, all three shots in the pass-and-score event and four of five shots in the breakaway relay against the Eastern Conference.
Clang faced the AHL’s top scorer, Laval’s Laurent Dauphin, in the rapid-fire event.
The team competition featured eight-minute round-robin games between the AHL’s four divisional all-star squads, plus an eight-minute championship game pitting the teams with the top two records.
The Pacific Division finished 2-1 in its three round-robin matchups — defeating the North Division, 4-1, and the Atlantic Division, 3-2, while being shut out, 4-0, by the Central Division.
The Pacific Division earned a rematch in the championship game against the Central Division, winning 3-1.
Clang split goaltending duties with Colorado’s Isak Posch. Clang allowed one goal on seven shots in the first game against the North Division and made two saves on three shots against the Atlantic Division. The San Diego netminder allowed three goals on four shots in the round-robin match-up against the Central Division but came back with four saves on five shots in the championship game in front of a sold-out crowd of 6,365.
Colorado’s Jayson Megna led the Pacific Division in scoring with four goals and three assists for seven points in the four mini-games, as the MVP of the event. Abbortsford’s Ben Berard followed with five points (two goals, three assists), Henderson’s Tanner Laczynski with four points (one goal, three assists), Calgary’s Matvei Gridin with three assists and Coachella Valley’s Jagger Firkus with two assists.
Posch paced all goaltenders with 12 saves on 13 shots he faced in the four outings.
Washe, who has logged 13 games with the NHL parent Anaheim Ducks this season with one goal and one assist, ranks 13th overall among AHL rookie scorers with 23 points (13 goals, 12 assists) — seventh in goals.
The midseason classic featured 18 former first- or second-round NHL draft picks and 28 players who have already skated in the NHL this season.
The Gulls return to action Feb. 13-14 with a home-and-home series against the Bakersfield Condors. The Gulls are on the road for the first game and will host the return match-up.
With a 21-14-6-3 record and 51 standings points at the midseason break, the Gulls stand sixth among the Pacific Division’s 10 teams. With the top seven squads advancing to the Calder Cup playoffs, the Gulls would be in if the season started today.
But nothing is guaranteed with 28 games remaining on the regular season schedule.
The Gulls sit four points behind the San Jose Barracuda (26-14-1-2) and Coachella Valley Firebirds (25-25-5), both with 55 points, but are just one point ahead of the seventh place Tucson Roadrunners (21-16-8).
The Gulls are now seven points ahead of both Henderson (18-17-6-2) and Calgary (16-19-10-2) as a gap has started to open at the bottom of the standings.
The defending Calder Cup champion Abbotsford Canucks remain in danger of not qualifying for this year’s playoffs in 10th place with a 16-26-3-3 record and 38 points (13 points behind the Gulls and 12 points behind Tucson, as the last qualifier).
The Ontario Reign (31-14-1-1, 64 points) and Colorado Eagles (29-10-2-3, 63 points) continue to lead the division, separated by one standing point, followed by Bakersfield (25-14-7, 57 points) in third place. The Gulls are within striking distance of the Condors heading into their upcoming two-game series against Bakersfield, trailing the Central Valley team by six standings points.
First half report
The Gulls skated into the AHL All-Star Break on the heels of a 7-4 win over the visiting Henderson Silver Knights on Feb. 4. The victory came on the heels of the Gulls’ epic win over the first place Ontario Reign on Jan. 31 to extend the team’s winning streak to three games and grab seven out of a possible eight points in its final four games prior to the midseason break.
But it wasn’t necessarily easy as the hosts had to break out of a 4-4 deadlock through two periods.
Matthew Phillips recorded his second three-point game of the season with a goal and two assists to boost him into a tie for the team scoring lead with 31 points on nine goals and 22 assists.
Justin Bailey opened scoring just 97 seconds into the game with his 15th goal of the season. He later added an assist to bring his season total to 26 points (15 goals, 11 assists).
Sasha Pastujov collected a goal and assist to notch his team co-leading 31 points (with Phillips) with 10 goals and 21 assists.
Yegor Sidorov, Ryan Carpenter, Roland McKeown and Noah Warrant each tacked on goals.
Konnor Smith, Jan Mysak, Nicholas Brouilard, Nikita Nesterenko and Tyson Hinds contributed assists. The assist was the first point of the season for Smith.
Clang recorded his 11th win of the season by stopping 33 shots. The 11 wins tie his single-season record from 2024-25.
Moving forward is at the top of the team’s list. The Gulls will look for some second-half momentum to solidify its playoff positioning and earn a postseason berth for the first time since the 2021-22 season.
“I think there’s obviously some stuff we can clean up,” Bailey said. “We were kind of trading chances with them, which is not like the games we’ve been playing against Vegas. Usually they’re tight games, 2-1, or 1-0. But I think on a positive note, scoring for us has been something we’ve been really trying to make a point of and to go out and put up six or seven, it’s good for us to kind of break that open going into the break. To have a three-game win streak going into the break you have six days, seven days to think about it. So, for us, it’s a good feeling. Everyone will take that into the break, and we’ll be ready to continue this February similar to like we had last year.
The Gulls broke open the Feb. 4 contest against Henderson with three third-period goals.
“Our team is so deep, we really have an emphasis on defending,” Bailey said. “You look at us, we’ve played a lot of tight games. I think that’s one thing for us going forward, we didn’t want to give up those quick ones at the end of the second, but like you’ve seen in the last two, three, four games where they’re tie games in the third, and that’s anybody’s game. Going to the playoffs and going down the stretch of the year, the games get tight. So obviously, for myself, Sasha (Pastujov), (Matthew) Phillips, (Yegor) Sidorov’s been hot. We got a lot of guys chipping in and we have a team where any given night, anybody can go off. That’s kind of what you’ve been seeing lately.”
The Gulls have played two fewer games than Bakersfield, one fewer game than Coachella Valley and one more game than San Jose. There are points to be had among all three California teams.
“At this point of the season, all the games get tight but also knowing who we are, what works and what doesn’t,” Bailey assessed. “I think when we’re dumping pucks in and playing with pace and winning our battles, breaking out the puck well, a lot of the things you’ve seen the last three, four games, you know, we’re a really, really tough team to deal with. We’re a really, really good hockey team, and we have depth up and down the lineup. We’ve had great goaltending all year, and so going down the stretch is just continuing to do those things that make us successful and cleaning up those little things that might hurt us throughout the game.”
Phillips called the Feb. 4 contest against the Silver Knights a “pretty chaotic game.”
“Honestly, I still think we played really well,” Phillips said. “Our emotion and our energy was awesome. We kind of just got a little bit out of structure and scrambling in the second but we reset in the third period, and we came out and just created a bunch of chances, and eventually a couple went in, so it was good.
“We’ve got tons of weapons on this team, and tonight, on paper, is as deep of a lineup as you’re going to see. We have lots of guys that can do it any night. Personally, it feels great to score one, but we have a lot of guys that have been stepping up lately.
“I think we’ve kind of broken this season up into thirds, and now we’re kind of closer into that home stretch. So, it’s nice to get some time to just kind of rest and relax, and guys get to go on little trips and stuff like that. But we’re really excited, and we think our game’s trending in the right way, so everyone’s going to be ready to get back at it.”
Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane concurs with those comments.
“We’ve got depth of guys that can score,” McIlvane said. “We were carried by that for a little bit. We’re getting a lot of scoring from two lines, and everybody can contribute, it’s just a matter of when. So that’s kind of what it takes, at the end of the season you don’t know which line is going to show up, and it’s good to have a lot of guys going.
“Right now, it’s just rest. Get your minds and bodies off of hockey for a little bit. Then when we get back, it ramps up real quick. You get a practice and you’re already playing a back-to-back against a really strong team. It’s time to reset and recover and get ready for a real great push.”
