Gulls making up ground in AHL standings with strong holiday push

The ice hockey season is in full swing and playoff positioning is already starting to offer a preview of the second half of the American Hockey League season.

The San Diego Gulls closed out the 2025 calendar year with back-to-back victories over the Bakersfield Condors (5-2 in Bakersfield on Saturday, Dec. 27) and Abbotsford Canucks (3-0 at Pechanga Arena on Sunday, Dec. 28) to keep their name in the mix for a Calder Cup playoff berth.

The Gulls completed the month of November with a 5-4-2-0 showing (0.591 winning percentage) and 13 standings points earned and have done even better in December with a 6-2-1-1 record (0.700winning percentage) and 14 standings points with a Dec. 31 game in Tucson remaining.

That’s 27 out of a possible 42 points earned over the 21-game stretch (0.643 winning percentage).

The Gulls face off the 2026 calendar year with a Jan. 2 home game against the Coachella Valley Firebirds and host the San Jose Barracuda on Jan. 7 before jetting to take on the first place Colorado Eagles for a two-game weekend series Jan. 9-10. The Gulls return home to host Abbotsford Jan. 14 and Jan. 16.

The San Diegans are busy in January with 14 games on their 2025-26 AHL slate — seven at home and seven on the road.

The Gulls host Coachella Valley on Jan. 17, Tucson on Jan. 28 and Ontario on Jan. 31. A four-game road swing takes them to Tucson (Jan. 20-21) and Abbotsford (Jan. 24-25).

The Pacific Division standings remain a work in progress with four teams separated by five points from first place to fourth place, five teams separated by four points from third place to seventh place and four teams separated by three points from fifth place to eighth place.

Entering Wednesday’s game in the Old Pueblo, the Gulls (13-8-6-1) sat sixth in the 10-team division with 33 points — one standings point behind Coachella Valley (15-9-4-0, 34 points) and one point ahead of the Henderson Silver Knights (14-10-3-1, 32 points).

The top seven teams qualify for postseason play. With nine of the 10 teams in the division owning 0.500 or better records, it’s a jumble with about 40 percent of the season schedule already put to bed.

Colorado tops the division with a 20-6-0-1 record and 41 points — three points ahead of the runner-up Ontario Reign (18-9-1-1, 38 points).

Icing on the cake
The Gulls recorded their fourth shutout victory of the season in blanking the defending Calder Cup champion Canucks in front of 8,589 fans at Pechanga Arena on Sunday. It was the first AHL shutout of the season for San Diego netminder Calle Clang, who has allowed one for fewer goals in five of his last six starts.

The hosts piled up a 45-15 shot advantage. Tim Washe, Judd Caulfield and Sam Colangelo each scored one goal while Ryan Carpenter, Nathan Gaucher, Tristan Luneau, Stian Solberg and Noah Warren each logged on assist.

The Gulls out-shot the host Condors 38-21 with Carpenter, Solberg, Jan Mysak, Justin Bailey and Nico Myatovic (shorthanded empty-netter) each potting goals. Ville Husso stopped 19 of 21 shots to hike his record to 7-5-3 with the Gulls in 15 AHL games this season (2.43 GAA, 0.903 save percentage, three shutouts). In nine NHL games this season with the parent Anaheim Ducks, he’s tallied a 5-3-1 record, 3.25 GAA and 0.884 save percentage.

It wasn’t exactly an easy turnaround. Sunday’s game scoreless through the opening period and remained close (1-0) until the Gulls broke free from the Canucks with two goals in the third period, including an empty-netter by Colangelo with 2:15 to play.

“It’s a hard turnaround,” San Diego head coach Matt McIvane said. “You get in at two o’clock in the morning (from the game in Bakersfield), and have a five o’clock game, it’s a fast turnaround. The challenge for the day is how fast can we get invested mentally. The guys were sharp. That was a cleaner game than the Bakersfield game. Special teams were excellent. Our defensive-form was excellent. Power play gets us on the board. Penalty kill goes four-for-four. That was a big-time team victory. 

Clang improved his season record to 5-1-2 with a 1.96 GAA and 0.916 save percentage.

McIlvane characterized the goaltender’s play as “solid.”

“He’s confident and calm, but I think he would be the first one to say that tonight the team defense in front of him was also very good,” the Gulls bench boss said. “When we needed Calle, he was there. He made a couple of really sharp saves, but this was a team shut out, and Calle was obviously a huge part of it.”

“Both teams wanted it tonight,” Washe said. “Playing yesterday, we knew we wanted to have a good start and dictate the game right away. Just credit to our defense and obviously our goaltending, unbelievable job. They made it so we could play more time in the offensive zone, and it was a blast.”

“We wanted to make a big push coming in after a break and into this new year. So, unreal job from the group so far. Winning is fun, so we’re going to keep trying to do our best.”

Besides wins piling up, so are individual statistics.

Through 28 games, Washe led the Gulls in team scoring with 24 points (12 goals, 12 assists), followed by Matthew Phillips with 23 points (six goals, 17 assists), Sasha Pastujov with 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists), Carpenter with 18 points (five goals, 13 assists), Caulfield with 17 points (10 goals, seven assists), Mysak with 16 points (six goas, 10 points), Bailey with 15 points (10 goals, five assists), Yegor Sidorov with 15 points (six goals, nine assists), Roland McKeown with 12 points (two goals. 10 assists) and Colangelo with 10 points (six goals, four assists).

A total of 20 players had logged at least one point this season. Three players have reached double digits in goals: Washe (12), Caulfield (10) and Bailey (10). Six players have reached double digits in assists: Phillips (17), Pastujov (14), Carpenter (13), Washe (12), Mysak (10) and McKeown (10).

Washe ranks third among AHL rookies in goals and fourth overall in points.

Winter wonderland
The Gulls closed out their pre-Christmas schedule with a three-game series against the Henderson Silver Knights and a two-game series in Calgary.

The Gulls finished with one regulation win (4-1 on Dec. 12), one shootout loss (2-1 on Dec. Dec. 13) and one regulation setback (1-0 on Dec. 16) to finish in a tie in the Pacific Division standings with the Silver Knights.

The Gulls picked up two points in their two-game series in Calgary against the Wranglers with a 4-3 overtime win on Dec. 19 and a 2-1 regulation loss on Dec. 21.

The Gulls tied a franchise record with 50 shots on goal in a single game and improved to 9-4-4-1 since the start of November and 4-1-1-1 in December.

Former Wrangler (and Stockton Heat) Matthew Phillips scored two goals, his first multi-goal performance of the season, while Jan Mysak tallied his fifth goal of the season, his first on a power play. Tristan Luneau notched the OT game-winner. Phillips moved up to No. 10 among AHL skaters on assists and continued to lead the Gulls with 23 points (six goals, 17 assists).

Tim Washe notched two assists to pass the 20-point mark with 21 points (11 goals, 10 assists) to rank fifth among league rookies in points.

Sasha Pastujov, Ryan Carpenter, Justin Bailey, Nikolas Brouillard and Yegor Sidorov each picked up assists while Calle Clang earned his fourth victory in five games, stopping 25 shots in regulation and overtime. In those five games, Clang had compiled a 4-1 record with a 1.39 GAA and 0.944 save percentage, ranking second among AHL goaltenders with fur wins in December.

Phillips called the win over Calgary at the Scotiabank Saddledome “huge.”

“It’s king of a bit of weight off our shoulders,” the Calgary native said. “Overtime obviously an be a bit of a crap shoot at times and (tonight) with a power play for each side, it’s just great to see to see one go in because I think we deserved a bounce.

“I love playing here, favorite rink in the world to play in. I think we spent a lot of time in their end. The PK has been outstanding all season. That has not changed. The power play has been a little bit up and down, and we knew that we just kind of had to stay with it.

“We kind of recognized with about eight games until Christmas break that we could really turn in on here. I think it was a good start.”

“It’s big,” Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane said. “There’s not secret that we’ve had our shortage of wins in overtime. We had a massive penalty kills, and we had goo looks on our power play. That kill at the end was massive and then once you get there into overtime, it’s a lot of gutsy efforts from those guys to be able to get the clears and fight through those read. The penalty kill was very strong. Our power play, it’s been a work in progress. It was quiet against Henderson, fore sure. Getting two (against the Wranglers) was the difference in the game. So, we’ll take that every time. It’s good for the guys to put four up , and hopefully it makes some guys feel good.”

Calgary 2, San Diego 1
The Gulls piled up 53 shots to eclipse the previous franchise record for most shots in a single game set three times before in absorbing a one-goal regulation setback.  Sam Colangelo scored the lone San Diego goal in the game on the power play. Washe and Roland McKeown each recorded assists.

Ville Husso, back from assignment with the NHL Anaheim Ducks, stopped 18 shots.

The Gulls saw their record dip to 11-8-6-1, 4-2-1-1 in December, 9-5-4-1 since the start of November, good for a tie with the Henderson Silver Knights with 29 standings points – 10 points out of first place, five points out of third place, three out of fifth place and two points out of sixth place in the 10-team division. Eight teams in the division own 0.500 or better records. Ninth place Tucson is 10 points behind fourth place Calgary and five points arrears of the Gulls and Henderson.

“The beginning of the season is just a set up for the next phase from after the (Christmas) break to the all-star break,” McIlvane said. “That’s the next big chunk of the season. For us, we feel like we’ve learned a lot about our team from the start. We know when we’re great, we know when we’re off, and we know the key things, and we know we’ve got a great hockey team, so we’ve set ourselves up.”

Teddy Bear Toss
The second game in the trio against Henderson on Dec. 14 doubled as the Gulls’ annual Teddy Bear Toss Night where fans had the opportunity to toss wrapped toys onto the ice upon the first goal of the night scored by the hosts.

Henderson faced off the game with very good defensive play and it looked like fans might be left clutching their toys for some time after the opening period ended scoreless.

Henderson took a 1-0 lead at 8:04 of the second period. Ben Hemmerling scored the game’s jump goal, his fifth of the season, off a pass from teammate Jonas Rondberg.

The second period ended with the Silver Knights holding a 19-16 edge on shots while keeping the Gulls off the scoreboard.

The anticipation built among Gulls fans until the Teddy Bear Toss goal finally occurred at 1:32 of the third period. Washe netted his team-leading 11th goal of the season, assisted by Phillips (his team-leading 16th) and Tyson Hinds (his fourth).

1-1 on the scoreboard.

Bears of all colors and sizes started raining down from the 10,619 in attendance.

The Gulls nearly took a 2-1 lead on an ensuing power play with several shots that could easily have gone in.

But they didn’t and the game went into overtime with the hosts holding a 27-25 edge in shots. It was either team’s for the grabbing but neither could get it done in the five-minute three-on-three extra period.

One shot was recorded for each team …. Shootout was next.

Colangeo was first up and shot wide. Henderson’s Jakub Brabenec followed with a miss to keep the shootout scoreless. Phillips scored on the Gulls’ second shot and Sapovaliv tied it 1-1 for the Silver Knights with a goal.

Justin Bailey was San Diego’s third shooter. He carried the puck too far past the goaltender and missed, setting the stage for Hemmerling to score the game-winner for a 2-1 victory.

The win boosted Henderson to two points behind the Gulls in the standings. The Gulls extended their points streak with one point awarded for the shootout loss while the Silver Knights picked up two key points.

Hemmerling earned first star of the game honors, Silver Knights goaltender Jesper Vikman was the second star and Washe was the third star.

Tomas Suchanek took the loss for the Gulls in the cage.

“Credit to them (the Silver Knights),” Washe said. “They played a really good game. We definitely saw a push-back. We knew that was coming. We wanted to focus on playing a team game and taking care of the puck and at times, we did that, especially towards the end, and that allowed us to get back in the game.

“We’re so resilient. We like showing that. When we’re playing together, playing the right way, we’re never out of the game. Those pushes late in the game, we know they’re coming. We’ve just got to win those battles and keep pressing.”

“The energy in this place was incredible,” Washe said. “That’s credit to the fans. They really brought it tonight. That was a special goal. It was loud and it felt like we were playing in a little bit of rain. It was pretty cool.”

The game was stopped for about 20 minutes to clear all the plush toys off the ice.

“It was a good hockey game, I thought,” McIlvane said. “There’s two teams that are pretty strong in their structure. They were competitive and fast, there were chances, and two really focused groups trying to get two points.

“We’ve played a lot of good hockey in these two games against this team. To say playoffs in December, we’ll take every learning experience we can along the way, because once we get to that point, we’re going to have to stack them all together. But in a little mini-series, you can find a game within the game. We’ve got an opportunity to win the series as we head into Henderson.

“The fans were awesome. I think the boys performed for them. We were very competitive in two games, able to leave with the result in one of them and a really exciting hockey game today. Teddy Bear Toss is a really cool event that goes to a great cause. We’re happy to be a part of it.

Every game is a big game. It’s all so tight. It’s going to be this way all the way through. We’re excited for our next opportunity.”