2025-2026 Game 16: San Diego Gulls vs Calgary Wranglers

San Diego, California. With back to back overtime losses where they initially held the lead the San Diego Gulls headed home to face the visiting Calgary Wranglers for the first time this season hoping to play the full sixty minutes and get back in the win column.

After back to back overtime losses Coach McIlvane finally switched up his lines – bringing Travis Howe back in and sitting Cal Burke to make room. As a result the bottom two lines were switched up with Sidorov and Caulfield moved up to the third line and Myatovic swapping to the fourth to join Howe on the wings of Nathan Gaucher.

The defensive pairings were also changed up – as the veteran Roland McKeown was placed back with Stian Solberg and Tyson Hinds placed with Tristan Luneau to create a dangerous roaming duo.

Cal Burke and Roman Kinal were the only healthy scratches, Konnor Smith was sent to Tulsa earlier in the week and Calle Clang still remained away from the team for personal reasons.

Vyacheslav Buteyets was given his first start of the season with Ville Husso backing up.

First Period:

The informal feeling out period between two teams yet to meet each-other this season felt like it lasted for the first five minutes of action before the Gulls settled into their rush style rhythm,

After rotating through all four lines it would be the third line to strike first thanks to a perfect entry followed by a draw-and-pass from Judd Caulfield to a streaking Yegor Sidorov on the left side. The Belurussian scoring winger opening the scoring to put the Gulls up 1-0. Gulls 1-0.

San Diego kept up the pressure immediately after the goal and were looking the better team but an against the grain play tested Buteyets who made the initial stop, lost track of the puck and lunged to make a second stop but the puck trickled behind the net where it was collected by Calgary and sent back out front to a waiting Martin Frk. The Gulls defenders looking dumbfounded as they stood around and watched the Wranglers tie it up. 1-1 tie game.

The momentum shift was immediate as Yegor Sidorov was called for a retaliatory slash minutes later and the Wranglers wasted no time capitalizing on the Power Play, utilizing some strong passing to beat Buteyets on the stick side but I would say hard done by the Officials as a clear slashing call on Tim Washe was missed seconds earlier. 2-1 Calgary.

Things went from bad to worse as a body on body hit between Judd Caulfield and a Calgary player ended with Caulfield favouring his right knee, he had to be escorted off the ice and seemed reluctant to put too much weight on it.

San Diego seemed a little shell shocked by the turn of events and struggled to mount any further sustained pressure or possession for the remainder of the period as they skated to the first intermission down 2-1 after – again – initially opening the scoring. Shots were 15-7 Calgary after the first period with the shot map showing the Gulls being vastly outplayed on the frame.

Second Period: Calgary Wranglers 2 – San Diego Gulls 1

San Diego looked night and day better as they took to the ice in the second – controlling play and the Calgary zone for back to back shifts but also frustratingly getting in each-others way as they pushed for an equaliser.

As his line took its turn in the rotation it was a very nice surprise to see Judd Caulfield back on the ice three minutes into the period and he didn’t appear to be cautious in his skating on the shift.

The initial inspired play for the Gulls lasted all of four minutes and the Wranglers quickly and ruthlessly snatched back momentum – adding to their lead as the San Diego defense failed to get position on their check and allowed rookie phenom Matvei Gridin to find a loose puck and deposit it in behind Buteyets. 3-1 Calgary.

The visitors seemed content to shutdown the neutral zone and defend their lead for the remainder of the time left in the period, swatting away San Diego attempts at head-man and breakaway passes with ease as they stifled their offense and speed.

Much to my amazement the Officials deemed it possible to actually penalise Calgary for just one of the many infractions they had already made in the game thus far but the Gulls could not properly get set on the man advantage with either unit – their closest chance on a set-play setup for a one-timer for Sasha Pastujov but the sniper broke his stick as he connected with the pass.

Time trickled to the final seconds of the period with San Diego still pressing but not looking exactly convincing as they headed to the second intermission down 3-1. Shots were 17-6 San Diego on the period – a much much better set of twenty minutes but although the shot map showed they did manage to generate some more chances – the Wranglers ability to strangle their speed was not quite shown in the quality of those chances.

Third Period: Calgary Wranglers 3 – San Diego Gulls 1

The first seven minutes of the period were a blur of physical play with the Wranglers playing the perfect road game – protecting their lead by holding to possession at all costs while frustrating the Gulls.

The Officials started to finally hand out some penalties and San Diego found themselves back on the Power Play for the second time of the period. They looked much much better on this instance of the man advantage – winning the initial face-off and setting up to create some chances to the side of the net through some swift passing but the ketchup appeared to have jammed up in the bottle again as although the puck came close it would not fall for a goal.

Nathan Gaucher did not help matters by taking a holding call himself and with forty seconds left in the minor Nico Myatovic made it a two man disadvantage as he iced the puck over the glass. As San Diego valiantly killed the two minors and play returned to five on five with roughly five minutes and twenty three seconds remaining in the game the Gulls tried again to get some speed going on offense.

The penalties continued to favour San Diego, although some obvious calls were still missed including a tripping call on Luneau that saw him prone on the ice after seemingly hyper extending his knee on the play but it felt like it was too little too late on the part of the Officials.

Pulling Buteyets for the extra attacker the Gulls peppered the Calgary net in a six on four formation and finally broke through on a strike by Roland McKeown from the high slot with just under a minute left. 3-2 Calgary.

The Gulls tried for one more chance off an offensive zone face-off but could not find a shooting lane as they fell to the Wranglers 3-2 in regulation to end their six game win streak.

Post Game Notes:

Sam Sam Where For Art Thou Sam

I wrote about him being MIA in my last post game notes but feel it needs reiterating. Wake the fuck up Sam! It is as if he feels he is better than this league and this team but also looks constantly surprised when he has the puck stripped from him when trying to dangle through multiple layers of defense. His presence should logically be followed by an uptake in goals but he has been pointless in his last three games and during that stretch the Gulls have been outscored 11-8. I have been incredibly disappointed with how he has looked since coming down and its concerning to see him seemingly struggle against lesser competition.

Sidorov Coming On

It did feel like it was just a matter of time before Sidorov would get back on the goal scoring list and he topped that goal by almost pulling off a highlight of the year kind of individual goal in the second period. The kid is feeling it and once those start going in, look out.

Buteyets Not Bad

This wasn’t our first look at Buteyets in the AHL but it was our first look for this season and it was nice to see how much he has improved. He didn’t swim as much as his appearances last year, looking much more calm and poised as he gloved down shots through traffic or padded aside one-timers from near the point. There were some WHAT THE FUCK moments – largely when he ventured from the net to play a puck, but other than that he could not be faulted for any of the goals he surrendered, they were all the result of team mistakes and poor checking.

The AHL Officiating Still Terrible

We already knew AHL Officiating was bad and had seen more than a fair few instances of that this season but today’s game was one of those games where it was clear the Officials were more than the usual standard incompetent crew. I hate to even give them a spot here but they did factor in this game with how much they let stuff go in the early goings. If they had called just some of the obvious stuff – like the calls they did end up giving the Gulls toward the end of the game – it might have changed the outcome. It goes both ways – they missed some obvious calls against San Diego also, namely Tristan Luneau hooking and harassing a Wrangler player on his way to the empty net in the final minute but overall I feel the Gulls were very hard done by in how much they let go through the first two periods of the game.