A sellout crowd of 12,920 fans greeted the San Diego Gulls on Fan Appreciation Night Saturday, April 19, at Pechanga Arena San Diego. It marked the Gulls’ final home game of the season and also the final regular season outing for the top developmental affiliate of the NHL Anaheim Ducks, which found itself locked out of postseason play for the third consecutive season.
Despite destined to finish with a sub-0.500 record, the Gulls entertained their flock of fans with a thrilling 5-4 overtime win over the visiting Coachella Valley Firebirds, a team 18 points ahead of them in fourth place in the American Hockey League’s 10-team Pacific Division standings.
As it was most of the season, it was an uphill battle for the home team. The Firebirds opened scoring at 8:09 of the first period on a goal by Andrei Loshko, his first of the season, assisted by Ty Nelson (his 26th) and Gustav Olofsson (his 14th).
The hosts tied the game at 11:54 as Sam Colangelo, back from an extended call-up to the Ducks, netted his 21st goal of the season off Jan Mysak’s 22nd assist of the season.
Colangelo scored the lone San Diego goal in Friday’s 2-1 loss at Ontario after being returned to the Gulls along with San Diego teammate Nikita Nesterenko after Anaheim missed the NHL Stanley Cup playoff cut.
A second round (36th overall) pick by Anaheim in the 2020 NHL Draft, Colangelo appeared in 32 games for the Ducks this season with 10 goals and two assists. In 39 games with the Gulls, he had logged 20 goals and 16 assists for 36 points. He was the Gulls’ representative in the midseason AHL All-Star Classic.
It was while without Colangelo and Nesterenko in the lineup late in the season that the Gulls started to show some cracks in their playoff stretch drive.
But that’s the nature of the beast where minor league hockey is concerned.
The first period ended in a 1-1 tie with the Gulls (29-35-5-3, 66 points) holding a 13-9 edge in shots. Tristan Luneau, another bright spot for the Gulls this season, gave the hosts a 2-1 lead at 7:12 of the second period, unassisted. It was is eighth goal of the season.
Luneau entered Saturday’s game as the Gulls scoring leader with 49 points (seven goals, 42 points) in 58 games. He earned a berth on the AHL’s All-Rookie team. He ranked first among all AHL defensemen in assists, ranking eighth overall in points.
A second-round pick by Anaheim in the 2022 NHL Draft, Luneau recorded an assist in 11 consecutive games this season from Feb. 12 to March 7, the longest such streak in the league in nearly three years. Luneau’s points streak coincided with the Gulls’ seven-game winning streak from Feb. 12-26 that catapulted the team up the division standings into playoff contention.
The Firebirds (37-25-5-5, 84 points) tied the score, 2-2, at 8:11 on Loshko’s second goal of the game, assisted by former Gull Nicholas Brouillard (his 30th) and Justin Janicke (his first).
The excitement in front of the large crowd was just getting started. The Gulls went up 3-2 on a goal by Nico Myatovic at 11:49. Jan Mysak recorded the primary assist while Colangelo picked up an assist for his second point of the game.
Shots at the end of two periods were tied 21-21.
The Firebirds were awarded a power play at the 6:02 mark of the third period for cross-checking. They cashed in to knot the score, 3-3, at 6:35 on a man-up goal by Oscar Friskert Molgaard, assisted by Logan Morrison and Brouillard.
Conversely, the Gulls went on the power play at 6:42 for a roughing call. It didn’t long for the hosts to re-take the lead on a blast by Luneau at 7:29. The goal was his second of the game, ninth of the season and team-leading 51st point. Assists went to Colangelo (his third point of the game) and team captain Ryan Carpenter (his 30th assist of the season).
4-3 San Diego.
Chants of “Let’s Go Gulls!” rang throughout the arena.
Those cheers turned to jeers when Morrison tied the game, 4-4, at 11:23 on a rapid-fire shot from just outside the crease. Jagger Firkus (his 21st) and Nathan Villeneuve (his first) drew the assists.
The night was reserved for the Gulls, however, as Colangelo scored 35 seconds into sudden-victory overtime to deliver a fan-satisfying 5-4 win to close out the 2024-25 season.
Luneau and Mysak recorded the assists on the Gulls’ last goal of the season. The assist was the 43rd of the season for Luneau and the 24th for Mysak.
Colangelo (two goals, two assists) secured No. 1 star of the game honors with four points while Luneau (two goals, one assist) was selected as the No. 2 star with three points. Mysak earned the No. 3 star with three assists.
Luneau topped the 2025-25 season as the Gulls’ leading scorer with 52 points on nine goals and 43 points in 59 games. He becomes the second San Diego defenseman to post a 50-point season following Brandon Montour’s 57 points (12 goals, 45 assists) in 2015-16. Luneau ranked seventh among rookies scorers in the league, first in assists.
Colangelo tallied 40 points (22 goals, 18 assists) in 40 games with the Gulls this season to rank fifth in team scoring despite playing a large chunk of the season in Anaheim.
Carpenter finished second in team scoring with 49 points (19 goals, 30 assists) in 72 games. The goals ranked in a tie for second while leading in assists.
Sasha Pastujov finished third in team scoring with 45 points (17 goals, 28 assists) in 43 games while Mysak placed fourth in team scoring with 42 points (18 goals, 24 assists) in 68 games.
The Gulls utilized the services of 44 players during the season, including 18 rookies.
Nesterenko logged six points (four goals, two assists) in 20 games in Anaheim this season and 34 points (13 goals, 21 points) with the Gulls in 50 games. He became the first player in San Diego AHL history to record consecutive four-point outings — two goals and two assists Feb. 28 against Coachella Valley and one goal and three assists March 1 against Bakersfield.
Among goaltenders, Calle Clang appeared in 31 games with an 11-13-4 record, 3.17 GAA and 0.895 save percentage while Oscar Dansk appeared in 37 games with an 11-18-4 record, 3.47 GAA and 0.886 save percentage.
Ville Husso, acquired by the Ducks in the latter stages of the season, appeared in nine AHL games with the Gulls with a 7-2-0 record, 2.56 GAA and 0.907 save percentage. He recorded one assist. He appeared in four games with the Ducks (1-1-1 record, 2.99 GAA, 0.925 save percentage) after being acquired in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings where he also appeared in 13 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins, the Red Wings’ AHL affiliate.
Ice chips
The AHL’s generous Calder Cup playoff lineup has been with the Tucson Roadrunners (34-32-4-2, 74 points) edging the Bakersfield Condors (32-30-7-3, 74 points) in a tiebreaker for the final Pacific Division playoff berth. Both teams finished with 74 points to tie for seventh place. The first tiebreaker is regulation wins, followed by regulation and overtime wins (ROW). Tucson won that decisively on both counts 30-23 and 33-28.
Following the Roadrunners in the division standings were the Gulls with 66 points in ninth place (for the second consecutive season) and the Henderson Silver Knights with 63 points. Both the Gulls and Silver Knights finished with 29 wins. The Gulls benefitted from eight games going into overtime or a shootout compared to five for Henderson.
The Pacific Division was close at the top as well. The Colorado Eagles (43-21-5-3, 94 points) edged the Abbotsford Canucks (44-24-2-2, 92 points) by two points for first place and the bye in the opening round of the playoffs (best-of-three). The Ontario Reign (43-25-3-1, 90 points) finished in third place — four points off the division lead and two points out of second place.
Six teams will open the division playoffs. Abbotsford will host No. 7 Tucson while Ontario will host the No. 6 seed San Jose Barracuda (36-27-5-4, 81 points). No. 4 seed Coachella Valley will host the No. 5 seed Calgary Wranglers (37-28-4-3, 81 points). Calgary edged San Jose for home ice advantage with 31 regulation wins to 29.
The AHL includes 32 teams — 23 of which qualify for postseason play. The parent NHL is a bit more stringent with 16 of its 32 teams advancing to postseason play. The idea with the expanded AHL playoffs is to give as many pro prospects as possible a taste of the playoff race and actual postseason experience.
The Gulls gave it their best shot, but it just wasn’t enough to push them over the edge. Rising from last place division standings at midseason, the Gulls enjoyed one of the AHL’s top records in February and March that included a span of 21 out of a possible 24 points to bring them within striking distance of the division’s seventh and final playoff berth.
The Gulls narrowed the deficit to five standings points with seven games left in regular season play. But an untimely four-game losing streak stalled the inspired climb up the standings. They were officially eliminated from the Calder Cup playoffs following a 5-0 loss in Bakersfield on April 11. Preceding losses on the downturn were 6-3 to the visiting Abbotsford Canucks on April 2 and 4-2 and 5-0 setbacks (April 4 and April 6) to the host Iowa Wild to start a pivotal four-game road swing.
The Gulls had a golden opportunity to trim the playoff deficit to just three points while riding a three-game home win streak following victories against the San Jose Barracuda (4-3 in overtime on March 26), Tucson Roadrunners (5-1 on March 28) and Calgary Wranglers (3-1 on March 29).
The Gulls coughed up a 3-2 second-period lead against the second place Canucks, who entered the game riding a 10-game winning streak to and extended it to 11 games with four unanswered third-period goals.
The Gulls seemed to lose momentum from there before finally breaking out of their slump with a key 4-3 overtime win at Coachella Valley on April 13. The San Diego team fought back to overcome two deficits before finally ending their four-game slide Myatovic’s first career OT winner.
There was too much pride and too much fight left in the tank to cash in the season.
“The push was great,” Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane said. “It was a lot of fun for a lot of moments of it. I think when we look back at the last four, there’s a sour taste that feels like we fell short, and an empty feeling. It leaves some questions and trying to find the right solutions but there was a lot of magic that happened during this push, and unfortunately, we got away from the stuff that made us so successful.
“In pro hockey, there’s always something to play for. There’s guys that are fighting for opportunities for the future. There’s guys who are fighting to set up their next season with the way that they finish right here. And as team, you want to be great all the time, bottom line. For us, we need to get back to our team game, we need to play with pride, and we’re going to push.”
“Looking back over that stretch, it was awesome,” San Diego defenseman Dillon Heatherington added. “We came together as a team. Guys bought into our systems, and, more importantly, we bought into each other, we became closer. So that was pretty special, those runs. But we got four games left, and we want to rekindle that fire and rekindle that flame and finish off the season on a good note.”
The loss to Bakersfield relegated the Gulls to no higher than ninth place in the 10-team division standings with three games remaining on the regular season slate: Wednesday, April 16, against the last place Henderson Silver Knights in the Gulls’ final midweek home game of the season, Friday, April 18, at the Southern California archrival Ontario Reign and Saturday, April 19, on Fan Appreciation Night against Coachella Valley.
The Gulls were wholly disappointing in a 4-0 loss to the Silver Knights, the top developmental affiliate of the NHL Vegas Golden Knights, in the starter of the final three-game set. At one point during the second period Henderson held a somewhat prodigious 20-13 advantage in shots. The Gulls bounced back in the latter stages of the contest to finish with a positive edge in shots (30-27).
But the only thing that seemed to remain was whether HSK goaltender Carl Lindbom would preserve the shutout victory. He did by closing the door on a final San Diego power play in the game’s final 29 seconds.
The Silver Knights closed their gap behind the Gulls to just one standings point. Besides missing the playoffs, the Gulls suddenly found themselves in danger of finishing in last place in the division with a flip in fortunes in the final two games.
But the Gulls bounced back with a 2-1 loss to the playoff-bound Reign to set up Saturday’s season finale.
The Gulls had the opportunity to play spoilers on Friday in Ontario as the host Reign was tied with Abbotsford for second place in the division standings. Meaningful games continued right down to the very end of regular season play.
The Gulls do seem to be making progress. They finished a whopping 26 points out of playoff berth two seasons ago and 16 points last season. The Gulls finished eight points behind seventh place Tucson, the division’s final playoff qualifier.
Notables
Right wing Travis Howe earned recognition as the Gulls’ IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year award-winner for his community service involvement. The 31-year-old native of Hull, Mass., participated in military base visits, local youth hockey practices, San Diego Special Hockey team practices as well as San Diego Gulls Foundation outings such as Gulls Night at Rady Children’s Hospital Ice Rink, Gulls Bowling Night and the Gulls Golf Classic.
Howe led the team with 92 penalty minutes in 39 games this season after tallying 87 points in 44 games in 2023-24. He had 77 points in 24 games during his first season in San Diego in 2022-23. He is signed through the 2025-26 season.
Each of the AHL’s 32 teams named an award-winner. The league-wide winner of the award Yanick Dupre Memorial Award, emblematic of the AHL’s IOA/American Specialty AHL Man of the Year, will be announced at a later date.
The Gulls’ threesome of forward Justin Bailey, defenseman Tyson Hinds and defenseman Noah Warren became what is believed to be the first players of Black lineage to combine on a goal in the history of the AHL, which has been in operation since 1936. Bailey, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., notched the goal at 8:27 of the third period in a March 28 home game against the Tucson Roadrunners, a 5-1 Gulls victory. The primary assist was awarded to Hinds, a native of Gatineau, Quebec, while the secondary assist was awarded to Warren, a native of Montreal.
Bailey, acquired in a midseason trade with San Jose, has appeared in 141 NHL games with the Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, Vancouver Canucks and the Sharks. The Sabres selected him in the second round (52nd overall) in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.
Bailey, 29, had appeared in 33 games with the San Jose Barracuda, the Sharks’ AHL affiliate, at the time of his trade to the Gulls, with 14 points (seven goals and seven assists). He blossomed in the San Diego lineup with 22 points (12 goals, 10 assists) in 35 games
Hinds, 22, a third-round pick (76th overall) by the Ducks in the 2021 draft, recorded 18 points (four goals, 14 assists) in 71 games this season, his second in San Diego. He had 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in 71 games last season.
Warren, 20, is playing his first season with the Gulls after being tabbed in the second round (42nd overall) in the 2022 draft by Anaheim.
Bailey said the history-making goal will always be special for him while Hinds said the goal was a result of the group’s hard work. Warren said the goal reflects hockey’s growing diversity. “I just think everyone’s accepted now,” he told the NHL.com website.
Black players have combined on a goal three times in NHL history — all in 2010 with the Atlanta Thrashers. Evander Kane was involved in all three with two goals and one assist.
