2025-2026 Game 03: San Diego Gulls vs Colorado Eagles

San Diego, California. After starting the season on a high with a 5-0 drubbing of their newest division rivals then dropping a disappointing home opener to the Henderson Silver Knights the San Diego Gulls hoped to settle back into the rhythm that got them the win in Coachella Valley as they faced a very tough test in the early division leading Colorado Eagles.

After the home opening loss Coach McIlvane made just the one change – bringing in Drew Elliott and sitting Owen Lindmark. Cal Burke moved back to center the fourth line with Elliott joining on the left side.

All other forward lines and defensive pairings remained the same.

Ville Husso was given his third straight start in net with Calle Clang backing up.

Nathan Gaucher and Coulson Pitre were the only injuries with Owen Lindmark, Ryan Lautenbach, Konnor Smith and Jeremie Biakabutuka the scratches.

First Period:

San Diego did well at first – looking a lot more settled in their game plan but a bad pinch by Stian Solberg saw the Eagles streak back the other way on a two on one with only Judd Caulfield and a desperately back-checking Yegor Sidorov there in defence. Ville Husso unable to make the stop on the two on one cross-ice pass. 1-0 Eagles.

Cal Burke drew a slashing call on the very next shift and a Gulls Power Play took time to get going but eventually generated some chances via the second unit with momentum carrying over to five on five as they looked for a quick equaliser.

Colorado briefly shifted momentum back the other way – hemming the second line and nearly taking advantage of another terrible shift by Solberg (who dropped his stick twice during the sequence) before a hooking call from the Eagles on the fore-check saw the Gulls head back to the Power Play.

Once again the Gulls Power Play took some time to get going with the Eagles even getting two huge chances off a face-off in the San Diego zone but as play returned to five on five teams continued to exchange chances.

As the audio cut out on the broadcast the top line had back to back sustained pressure shifts in the Eagles zone, followed by the Mysak line until the third line had the Gulls best and closest chance so far as Tim Washe looked certain to deposit a rebound in front only to be denied by the lunging right pad of Eagles net-minder Isak Posch.

A final minute penalty to Noah Warren for a retaliatory slash saw the Gulls head to the penalty kill for the first time and saw out the remainder of the period keeping the Eagles at bay with some nice tight defensive box work.

Once again the visitors taking a lead into the first intermission with the Gulls down by one after the first period but leading in shots 13-9. The shot map painting a much better picture of San Diego being a tad unlucky to not be on the board.

Second Period: Colorado Eagles 1 – San Diego Gulls 0

Starting the second on the penalty kill an inadvertent stick from Tyson Hinds saw the Eagles enjoy 22 seconds of five on three but the Gulls survived the two man disadvantage as well as the ensuring five on four to follow.

The Eagles carried momentum after the kill with the Gulls struggling to hold consistent possession until the fourth line put a halt to that with a heavy hitting shift. Tim Washe then drew another call in the Eagles zone. The first unit looked a lot better after winning the face-off and keeping the zone but Colorado were aggressive and good at taking away lanes.

With Justin Bailey driving the net from the side in the dying seconds of the man advantage a dubious call resulted as the follow through from his shot hit an Eagles player up high with the player in question on his knees attempting to block the shot.

The Gulls were able to kill the minor and as play returned to five on five play was back and forth with the Eagles gaining another power play after Alex Barre-Boulet split the Gulls defense and drew a call for his efforts.

San Diego pushed again in the final three minutes of play and were given a Power Play as the Eagles Taylor Makar took a very bad penalty by slashing the stick out of Tyson Hinds as he attempted to play a high puck. The Gulls second unit looked much better and Yegor Sidorov roamed the zone trying to break the Eagles out of their strict and stifling zone defense but as the first unit replaced them the Eagles took back play and time expired on the period with the visitors still up by one after a penalty filled period.

Shots were 11-7 Eagles on the frame owing to their disparity in Power Plays awarded and an even 20 a piece overall. The shot map showing the Gulls still getting their chances but the ice clearly shifted in the Eagles direction.

Third Period: Colorado Eagles 1 – San Diego Gulls 0

The Gulls looked the hungriest they had thus far this season as they desperately tried to get an equaliser to start the third but the Eagles played an experienced road game and shut down the neutral zone as well as allowing no space for any San Diego player once in possession of the puck.

Tim Washe tried to fight is way to the net with an Eagle draped all over him and was called for high sticking as his stick got up high on the Eagles Keaton Middleton.

San Diego were able to kill the minor despite the Eagles spending the majority of the time in their zone but Ville Husso looked ever the NHL quality goaltender as he calmly gloved point blank chances in front.

The Gulls continued to desperately claw for a game tying goal as Coach McIlvane juggled the lines to get a spark. With a minute and a half left in the game and the Eagles easing pressure at every opportunity they could the Gulls pulled Husso for the extra attacker with an offensive zone face-off.

With 51 seconds left the Eagles chased down a clear and Tristen Nielsen beat Roland McKeown to the loose puck to make it 2-0 and put the final nail in the coffin.

San Diego dropping their second straight loss of the season to fall to a 1-2-0 record.

Post Game Notes:

STOP PINCHING STIAN

I don’t mean to single out any single Gull player and I feel even worse considering its the only true rookie on the squad but for Christs sake Stian – stop pinching at the wrong time.

After watching the play that lead to the first (and critical) Eagles goal again the breakdown appears to be some poor awareness in knowing what kind of support he had behind him. It started with his defensive partner Roland McKeown pinching to keep the puck in the zone and then backing off as the forwards move in to support. In the back of the frame you can already see Solberg has moved in way too far to near the half circle anticipating a loose puck or pass but instead the play goes to the near side boards where he pursues and ties up his man but is too late to prevent the odd-man break created by him moving in too deep. It’s a learning curve thing but I am imagining the coaches are only going to allow a few more of those kind of costly mistakes to happen before he maybe gets a little tough love treatment.

Pacific Division Tough Again

I can’t quite tell if this is another slow start or if the Gulls are finding that they were not the only ones to make improvements in the off-season. A quick look at the Division standings shows that the Coachella Valley Firebirds now sit last with three losses while the Silver Knights are near the top with a 2-1-0 record. Colorado always puts out a quality and well coached squad – even with their parent club keeping incoming top-tier prospects at a trickle so I wasn’t really expecting much from this one but still – dropping points in games that were there for the taking really hurts.

It is encouraging that their last two games have been tight affairs that really could have gone either way but I think as a fan-base we expect at least the playoffs this season and that means putting some more wins together in October.

Lines Are Jelling

Another positive are lines are being kept consistent and the chemistry is more than starting to show. One distinct advantage the Gulls may have over some of their other division opponents is depth – if they can stay out of the box and roll all four lines they will eventually be able to overpower their opponents with waves of attack. Much like they did in the season opener against the Firebirds. We saw brief glimpses of that in this game but the second period was too chippy and penalty filled to allow the Gulls to generate any consistent run of rolling all four lines.