Gulls avoid late collapse, top Barracuda 4-1

The San Diego Gulls met up with the San Jose Barracuda in Pacific Division AHL action Saturday, Oct. 24, at Pechanga Arena, a team they opened the 2026-27 season against in the Bay Area with a 1-0-1 showing. Since then, the Cuda had slid to last place in the standings.

The Gulls, situated in the middle of the division standings, were looking for a bounce back after surrendering two goals in the final two minutes of Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the visiting Coachella Valley Firebirds.

It was a close game through two periods with the hosts holding a slim 1-0 lead before sprinting to the finish with three third-period goals, including an empty netter, to post a key 4-1 win in the division standings.

“The response was great right from the start,” Gulls assistant coach Kelly Buchberger said. “I thought we set the pace of gthe play in the first couple shifts and we didn’t let off.”

The Gulls opened scoring against San Jose starter Eric Comrie (Newport Beach) at 14:20 as a shot glanced off the post past the Cuda neminder. Corey Schueneman got credit for the goal, his first of the season, assisted by Sean Farrell and Yegor Sidorov. The assist was the third of the season for Farrell and the second for Sidorov.

Comrie and San Diego starter Laurent Brossoit both stopped dangerous shots in the final seconds of the opening period. The Gulls finished with a 13-8 edge in shots.

There was no scoring in the second period as both teams logged 12 shots for a 25-20 San Diego advantage through 40 minutes.

The Gulls (4-4-1) out-shot the Barracuda 12-9 in the final period to finish with a 37-29 edge for the night. Just when it looked like San Jose was starting to build a comeback, the hosts struck to deny that.

James Hamblin scored back-to-back goals at 11:04 and 15:02, his second and third goals of the season, to widen the score to 3-0. The 2-0 goal was assisted by likewise San Diego newcomers Jett Woo and Anton Wahlberg. The 3-0 goal, which came on the power play,  was assisted by Wahlberg and Lucas Pettersson.

The Cuda (3-6-0) made it 3-1 on captain Jimmy Huntington’s fourth goal of the season at 16:36, assisted by Cam Lund and Eric Pohlkamp.

There would be no late collapse this time around as Nico Myatovic secured the win with an empty net goal at 17:11. It marked his team-leading fifth goal of the season. Pettersson drew the assist.

Brossoit stopped 28 of 29 shots to record his second win of the season while Comrie, with NHL duty in 102 games with the Winnipeg Jets, Detroit Red Wings, New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres, stopped 33 of 36 shots.

Brossoit,who has logged 141 NHL games with the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg, Vegas Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks, made his first save of the game on a breakaway to get “locked in right away,” as he put it.

“It was kind of nice for us to go out and lose late against a good team in the last game and then to have the same situation arise in this game, and to kind of rise to the occasion and learn our lessons,” Brossoit said. “It’s a sign of a mature team, and that’s always a good sign, especially when we all have a lot of young guys.

“That’s something that lately we want to improve on, sitting on a lead. That’s been a lot of games this year so far where we’ve been chasing, and so to get ahead and then be able to kind pf stymie them throughout the rest of the game was a really good sign that we’re learning quickly.”

Hamblin notched his first multi-goal effort of the new season to raise his point total to five (three goals, two assists).

Wahlberg remains on a season opening hot streak with his team-leading eighth and ninth assists. He ranks fourth in the league in assists and has earned assists in eight of nine games, including a helper in four consecutive matchups.

Pettersson recorded his second multi-assist game of the season. He ranks tied for third among AHL rookie skaters with five.

The Gulls host the Henderson Silver Knights on Halloween night, Saturday, Oct. 31, at 6 p.m. and turn around to host the Colorado Eagles on Dia de los Muertos, Sunday, Nov. 1, at 5 p.m.

“I think it’s always good to have some rest for the boys,” Buchberger said in regard to a break in the schedule. “There’s always things to work on in this game, and we have a young team. We have a lot of first-year players and so we just got to work on our structure and the way we play.”

The Gulls assigned forwards Cruz Lucius and Coulson Pitre to the ECHL Tulsa Oilers on Sunday. Lucius, 22, appeared in four games, netting his first professional goal in his first game Oct. 9 in Coachella Valley. Pitre, 21, appeared in 25 games in 2025-26 for San Diego with five points (two goals, three assists) and 26 games in Tulsa with 21 points (five goals, 16 assists).