Wednesday’s pre-Halloween American Hockey League contest at the sports arena was billed as one of ghouls and goals.
It was a spooky good time as the Gulls skated off the ice with a 3-0 shutout victory over the San Jose Barracuda to claim their first home ice win of the 2025-26 season.
The Gulls returned to their home nest following a two-game road swing over the weekend to Nevada against the Henderson Silver Knights. The San Diego captured one point out of a possible four points the two matchups following a 3-2 overtime loss on Friday and a 5-2 loss on Saturday.
The Gulls had not won since opening night while falling to a 1-3-1 record (three standings points) and 10th place in the 10-team Pacific Division standings.
Wednesday’s victory over the division rival was much needed. The Barracuda entered Wednesday’s game with a 2-3-0 record – one standings points ahead of the Gulls.
The Gulls’ win flipped the Cuda into last place in the division standings.
“The guys showed a lot of character today,” San Diego hread coach Matt McIlvane said. “We were strong in the first and, when we weren’t strong, we kind of bent, but didn’t break. Our goaltender was excellent, and the third period had real strong elements of maturity.
“We’ve been consistently productive offensively without necessarily getting rewarded all the time. It’s good that we were able to find the net a little bit today. But what is more impressive is how many great looks we had, specifically in the first period.”
Game on
The hosts faced off the game with a pair of power plays. The first one, for too many men, failed to produce a goal. The second, for tripping, produced the first goal of the game at 5:43 by Yegor Sidorov, assisted by newcomer Tim Washe and Matthew Phillips. The goal was the second of the season for Sidorov and the assist the fifth of the season for Phillips.
1-0 San Diego.
The Barracuda went on the man-advantage at 10:23 on a roughing call. But the Gulls maintained the lead and the shot advantage, 17-9 at the end of the opening period.
The Cuda started to come on in the second period but the Gulls scored a second goal to go up 2-0 at 14:59. Washe scored the even-strength goal, assisted by Phillips, another newcomer who notched his second point of the night and sixth assist of the season.
Shots at the end of the second period were 28-21 in favor of San Diego.
The Gulls staved off a pair of San Jose power plays to start the third period, then got a short power play of their own. But the score remained the same as the hosts recorded a near-miss as the puck slid tantalizingly just inches wide of the open post.
The Gulls ended the drama with an empty net goal at 17:04 courtesy of Washe, his second goal of the game and third tally of the season. Nikolas Brouillard and Noah Warren. Picked up assists.
3-0 San Diego.
A scrum between the teams stopped the clock with 2:22 remaining in regulation as frustration finally boiled over in a physical matchup
San Jose goaltender Gabriel Carriere remained out of the net once play resumed. The hosts took three more shots at the empty cage but tall went wide to a chorus of “aaahhhs” from the 4,425 fans in attendance.
Final shots were 35-27 in the Gulls’ favor. San Diego goaltender Ville Husso registered the 27-save shutout, his second of the season, fourth in his Gulls career to tie a club record (Lukas Dostal), and 17th in the AHL as the game’s first star. Washe was the second star with two goals and one assist while Phillips was the third star with two assists.
The Gulls improved to 2-3-1 while San Jose saw its record dip to 2-4.
“I think we have been playing pretty well overall,” Husso offered in post-game comments. “Just haven’t gotten wins, as many as we would like, and had a couple of good practices after the Vegas trip, a couple of tough losses there. Just trying to take care of the little things. And like I said, those two practice days we had really, really good pace. And it showed today on the on the ice too.
The guys did a hell of a job there. I mean, sometimes it takes six icings. It’s the part of the game you get 10-15 seconds to breathe. And I think overall, we battled pretty well all game long. And I saw every puck that they shot pretty much. From a goalie perspective, it’s part of the game. Five minutes, it felt like, but like I said the guys battled hard, and they were on the ice for a long time. So, give credit to them, for sure.
“We have a good group of guys and great team. We play like that, we have a chance every night to win, and that’s the biggest thing. It doesn’t matter if it comes shutout or not, but we just want to win. And I think guys did a hell of a job tonight, all 60 minutes. That’s the result right there.”
“A couple of games didn’t go our way (in Henderson),” said Washe, who appeared in two games with the NHL parent Anaheim Ducks last season. “We were close that first night in Vegas. We’re doing a lot of things right. It felt good tonight to have another chance to get back at it. We played a complete team game today. I thought when there were breakdowns, we made the winning efforts to get pucks out, or just to make a block or something like that. It was just an awesome response from the group. Proud of the guys.”
The Gulls regroup for a quick trip to Coachella Valley Thursday night and return home to host the division-leading Colorado Eagles on Sunday (5 p.m. start).
Around the AHL
Colorado was back on top of the division with a 6-2-0 record and 12 standings points, followed by Henderson (5-1-1. 11 points), Calgary (4-2-2, 10 points), Ontario (4-2-1, nine points), Bakersfield (3-3-1, seven points) and Tucson (3-4-1, seven points). The Gulls were tied with Coachella Valley with identical 2-3-1 records together with Abbotsford at 2-5 with one shootout loss and San Jose.
Henderson finished in the division cellar last season while Abbotsford won the Calder Cup championship.
The Providence Bruins (7-0) and Wilkes Barre-Scranton Penguins (7-1) were the league leaders with 14 points in the Atlantic Division. The Syracuse Crunch (6-1) and Rochester Americans (6-2) co-led the North Division with 12 points while Grand Rapids (6-0) and Rockford (6-2) co-led the Central Division also with 12 points.
Gulls scoring leaders include Phillips (one goal, six assists) with seven points in six games, Washe (three goals, two assists) with five points, Jan Mysak (one goal, three assists) with four points and Sasha Pastujov (one goal, three assists) with four points. Six players were tied with three points each: Judd Caulfield (three goals), team captain Ryan Carpenter (two goals, one assist), Sidorov (two goals, one assist), Tristan Luneau (one goal, two assists), Roland McKeown (one goal, two assists) and Warren (three assists).
Husso extended his season record to 2-3 with a 2.04 GAA and 0.927 save percentage. Calle Clang is 0-0-1 with a 2.81 GAA and 0.897 GAA in one game appearance, the overtime loss to the Silver Knights on Oct. 24.
Mysak and McKeown scored regulation goals for the Gulls in the series opener in Henderson. Braeden Bowman scored two goals for the Silver Knights, including the game-winner at 4:44 of overtime.
Sidorov and Caulfield scored for San Diego in the ensuing 5-2 setback on Oct. 25.
MLS: San Diego FC wins playoff opener, 2-1, over Portland
San Diego FC’s amazing expansion season of firsts continued Sunday night in front of a sellout crowd of 35,000 at Snapdragon Stadium as the locals won their first-ever Major League Soccer playoff match, 2-1, over the visiting Portland Timbers.
San Diego FC moves within one win of advancing to the single-elimination semifinals. The teams rematch Saturday, Nov. 1, in Portland. A win by the Timbers would return the teams to San Diego for a deciding match in the best-of-three Round One series on Nov. 9.
SDFC never trailed in Sunday’s opener, taking a 2-0 lead on goals by Onni Valakari in the 23rd minute and Anders Dreyer in the 30th minute on a diving header.
Kristoffer Velde trimmed the lead to 2-1 in the 36th minute but the Timbers finished the match a man short after Jimer Fory received his second yellow card and match ejection in the 66th minute.
San Diego out-short Portland 14-5 and controlled 64 percent of possession with a 94 percent pass accuracy and 7-0 edge in cornerkicks.
San Diego Wave prepares for NWSL playoffs
San Diego Wave
The National Women’s Soccer League team closes out regular season play Sunday, Nov. 2, at the league-leading KC Current.
The Wave then will sety sail in the upcoming NWSL playoffs.
NWSL standings
Team W-L-T Pts
KC Current 20-3-2 62
Wsshington 12-5-8 44
Orlando 11-8-6 39
Seattle 10-7-8 38
San Diego 10-8-7 37
Portland 10-8-7 37
Gotham FC 9-7-9 36
Louisville 9-9-7 34
North Carolina 8-9-8 32
Houston 8-11-6 30
Angel City 7-12-6 27
Utah 5-13-7 22
Bay FC 4-13-8 20
Chicago 2-12-11 17
Note: Top eight teams qualify for the playoffs. Quarterfinals are Nov. 7-9. The top four-seeded teams host.
