2025-2026 Game 08: San Diego Gulls vs Colorado Eagles

San Diego, California. Coming back home from a brief foray into the desert to pick up a point in an overtime loss to the Coachella Valley Firebirds the San Diego Gulls hoped to prove themselves worthy opponents of the historically division leading Colorado Eagles.

It was noticed during warm-ups that Tyson Hinds was missing and it was confirmed with the starting line-up that Konnor Smith took Hinds spot on the pairing with Roland McKeown.

Ville Husso was given the start with Calle Clang backing up.

Owen Lindmark and Tyson Hinds were the only scratches. All other previous scratches had since been sent to Tulsa – see post game notes for more on that.

First Period:

San Diego played a much more composed start than we have seen from them in recent outings against higher rated opponents. Owning possession and generating back to back Power Play opportunities through the first ten minutes of play.

The first of which was as horrible as they have been thus far but the second resulting in a game opening score as Tim Washe chased down and out muscled the Eagles for the puck in the corner before skating away and feeding a perfect dish to Matthew Phillips in the slot. 1-0 Gulls.

The Gulls kept up their sudden dominance after the goal, shadowing the Eagles to force turnovers and making quick plays with the puck to keep it moving up ice. Once again the Mysak line lead the way by applying their own brand of havoc in the Colorado zone – Sasha Pastujov attempting a wrap around stuff and paying the price on one play while Judd Caulfield muscled both himself and the puck to the net on another opportunity.

The remainder of the period ticked by at pace as the Gulls continued to frustrate the visitors and take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Shots were 11-6 Gulls with the shot map confirming San Diego outworking the Eagles on the period.

Second Period: San Diego Gulls 1 – Colorado Eagles 0

As expected the Eagles came out with a more coordinated and disciplined game to start the second and for the first few minutes of play the ice shifted every so slightly in the visitors favor.

However the Gulls played the waiting game and used turnover opportunities to force the issue and keep the Eagles net-minder busy.

A retaliatory slashing call given to Yegor Sidorov saw the Gulls short handed for the first time in the game as time approached the twelve minute mark.

Judd Caulfield proved the main protagonist as he played soccer with the puck along the near side boards while Eagles players harassed and swatted around him, the big winger single handedly killing almost a minute of time. As the Gulls killed the minor and play returned to five on five San Diego went right back to closing out the neutral zone and frustrating an Eagles squad unused to trailing.

An against the grain cycle play in the Gulls zone saw the Eagles finally break through to tie it as the layers of traffic in front of Ville Husso proved too difficult for him to track a shot from the top of the circles. 1-1 tie game.

Justin Bailey forced his own turnover and then break but was tripped before he could execute what looked like would be a nice between the legs move in front of Eagles goaltender Isak Posch. San Diego’s first unit showed massive improvement from their initial showing in the first period but still took too long to get set and only generated the one Tristan Luneau blast from the point which was stopped and then cleared.

The Gulls kept up their effort and saw one last chance in the dying seconds of the period go astray as Tim Washe’s pass out front to a streaking Stian Solberg went wide of his stick. The Gulls heading to the second intermission tied up at one after surrendering their lead but still playing relatively well. Shots were 11-8 in favor of Colorado and 19-17 overall for the Gulls. The shot map showing a similar tale of San Diego allowing their lead to dissipate as momentum slowly shifted away from them.

Third Period: San Diego Gulls 1 – Colorado Eagles 1

Ville Husso was called upon early in the third as too many mistakes crept into the Gulls game. First Jan Mysak sent a blind pass to the slot from the near-side boards that was picked off and saw Husso forced to make a huge glove save and then later he had to turn aside a stick-handle in his crease after another errant pass.

San Diego once again had their luck go against them as an Eagles foray into their zone turned into a goal as they could not get a stick to a bouncing puck that pin-balled it’s way around Husso’s crease before settling at the far side of the net perfectly for Ronnie Attard. Eagles 2-1.

A slashing call to Nico Myatovic as the frustrated young winger battled for position in front of the Eagles net saw the Gulls down a man but as they killed the minor and returned to five on five they were gifted perhaps their best chance of the period but Tristan Luneau’s low shot was stopped on the two on one break and Justin Bailey did not stop for the rebound.

San Diego kept pressing for the equalizer and again came close thanks to the Mysak line but Isak Posch continued to turn aside any and all pucks thrown at him as time became the Gulls enemy.

Things went from bad to worse as Matthew Phillips sent the puck over the glass on the full with three minutes left and the Gulls went to the penalty kill. Konnor Smith drew a call down low as he took an uncontrolled stick up high and teams skated at four on four for forty seconds followed by a minute Power Play for the Gulls with less than two minutes left in the game.

San Diego pulled Husso right away to make it a five on four but could not find a clear passing lane in the Eagles zone after winning the face-off and the Eagles were able to hit their empty net from within the Colorado zone to ice the contest. Eagles 3-1.

San Diego playing well to begin with but letting another tight contest slip away from them as they couldn’t keep up their strong opening period effort for the entire sixty minutes.

Post Game Notes:

Meanwhile In Tulsa

Apologies for the misinformation at the top of some of my post-game notes lately – I’ll admit I have been incredibly bad at keeping on top of the AHL Transactions page where it has plainly shown that since Ian Moore’s call-up on the 17th of October – the Gulls have assigned both Ryan Lautenbach and Drew Elliott to Tulsa as well as Coulson Pitre direct from Anaheim after being cleared from his injury.

The Oilers are currently led in scoring by Easton Armstrong – a Redondo Beach native who had 21 points in 51 games for the Atlanta Gladiators in his ECHL debut season last year. Armstrong is then followed by four other players not directly affiliated with the Ducks on the team scoring list among forwards before we reach Jaxsen Wiebe who has four points in six games. Drew Elliott is just below him with two goals in his first three games since joining the team. Ryan Lautenbach has two assists in his first three games of action. Coulson Pitre is scoreless through his first two games. The defenders are a different story – Biakabutuka, Roman Kinal and Will Francis are the top three for the blue line with Biakabutuka tied for third in scoring by skaters with five points in eight games.

In net – both Suchanek and Buteyets have played an equal four games a piece but Suchanek holds the better record going 3-1-0 with a 3.00 GAA and 0.919 SV% while Buteyets has just the one win and three losses while owning a 3.52 GAA and 0.911 SV%.

Hinds Getting Called Up? Or Just Giving Smith Some Ice

The confusion surrounding whether or not Tyson Hinds is being called up to the Ducks likely won’t be realized until tomorrow but it is just as likely that Coach McIlvane felt he needed to give Konnor Smith a game given he has played in just one other thus far this season. The case for it being a call-up is not out of the question either, as Derek Lee noted in his morning skate update the Ducks are facing some injuries. With all three of Ryan Strome, Mikael Granlund and Radko Gudas likely out for another two weeks max with varying injuries. It is the injury to Gudas that will determine if Hinds gets the recall or not.

That said – Smith did not look out of place at all in tonight’s contest. He broke up a three on one break, he made several smart keeps, he threw the puck on net when there seemed no other option and he didn’t take any stupid penalties.

Early Season Stats and Standings

The loss now drops the Gulls to 2-4-2 which as it stands – doesn’t devastate their current position in the standings but they have a tough month ahead of them facing every single other team in the division at least once. Next up is Henderson – the current division leaders – so another tough test and then its a back to back against Ontario with Bakersfield and Abbotsford the following weekend. Ontario have seen mixed results this season so there may be opportunity there while Bakersfield have been equally inconsistent and the Canucks are dead last riding a six game losing streak. If the Gulls can somehow come out of Henderson with a point and then string some wins together over Ontario, Bakersfield and Abbotsford they would look a lot better than they do now.