2025-2026 Game 22: San Diego Gulls vs Henderson Silver Knights

San Diego, California. Returning home after a brief sojourn to the north where they continued their two game win streak with a 3-1 victory over the Barracuda, the Gulls welcomed the Henderson Silver Knights to Pechanga Arena for a weekend back to back.

Once again the coaching staff made no changes whatsoever to the line-up; going with the exact same forward lines, defensive pairings and goal-tending as the win over San Jose.

Calle Clang getting the start in net once again with Tomas Suchanek backing up.

Travis Howe and Roman Kinal were the only healthy scratches.

First Period:

Having proven they know how to beat San Diego on three previous meetings this season the Silver Knights looked to deploy the exact same strategy that provided those victories as they clogged the neutral zone, actively shadowed Gulls fore-checkers and patiently waited for them to make a fatal mistake.

The heavy game of the Silver Knights slowly began to overwhelm the Gulls in their own zone and a hooking call was assessed to Roland McKeown as time approached the midway mark.

San Diego were able to kill the minor but could not get a clear as a tired unit watched Matya Sapovaliv collect a bad clear from Brouillard in the high slot and beat Clang through traffic. 1-0 Silver Knights.

The Gulls responded with the Mysak line and drew a call of their own as Justin Bailey was tripped by former Gulls captain Jaycob Megna on a play that looked closer to a kneeing call.

The San Diego man advantage looked more akin to an episode of Fawlty Towers to begin with as some bad zone entries were intercepted and turned into offensive chances for the Silver Knights but once they did gain the zone and get set they created two high danger chances – one of which rang off the post.

The Gulls carried forward a tiny bit of momentum following the man advantage and appeared to be settling into a more comfortable game of speed and possession but ran out of time as the final horn sounded on the first twenty minutes of play.

San Diego down 1-0 heading into the first intermission and trailing in shots 8-3 with the shot map showing that although they did generate some quality chances – they did not show as shots due to not getting on net.

Second Period: Henderson Silver Knights 1 – San Diego Gulls 0

Henderson continued to frustrate with their fore-check but the Gull started to show signs of getting back to their game as they put together some clear cut chances in the Henderson zone.

After one impressive amount of sustained pressure in the Silver Knights zone it felt like a game tying goal would be just moments away but the Henderson escaped the pressure and play returned to a tit-for-tat back and forth trading of rush attempts through the neutral zone.

San Diego again manged to build some more momentum and Matthew Phillips drew a tripping call as he was felled going after a loose puck.

The Gulls Power Play again did not convert but they kept the pressure on once the penalized Henderson player returned to the ice and a turnover forced before the Silver Knights could completely clear their zone saw Sam Colangelo able to skate down to the goal line, forced wide as he did but able to swing a pass in front to a waiting Matthew Phillips. The veteran forward taking all sorts of punishment as he batted the puck into the net. 1-1 tie game.

Time expired on the period and the Gulls headed to the second intermission tied up at one after finally being able to get away from the Henderson fore-check. Shots were 13-3 San Diego on the period to take a 16-11 difference into the third.

Third Period: San Diego Gulls 1 – Henderson Silver Knights 1

San Diego started the third as they finished the middle frame and were awarded a Power Play as Jeremy Davies was called for interference.

Getting some very good looks on the Power Play but again unable to convert the Gulls kept up the pressure and soon enough a net front scramble resulted in Ryan Carpenter punching in a rebound as his helmet was ripped off in the process. The San Diego captain showing the most emotion he has in a long time as he celebrated after the goal. Gulls 2-1.

Playing the Mysak line immediately after the goal the Gulls instantly added to their lead as Sasha Pastujov intercepted a pass out of the Henderson zone and sent it straight on net. 3-1 Gulls.

Henderson called a time out after the goal but it didn’t seem to help much as Nico Myatovic had his stick slashed out of his hand on the very next shift to send San Diego back to the Power Play.

Rinse, repeat – the Gulls had some good looks but did not convert and has play returned to five on five they continued to dominate possession as well as the neutral zone.

Justin Bailey thought he had drawn an interference call but the Officials decided that he fell of his own volition whilst trying to get around a Henderson player after chipping the puck by him.

It took until the 7:50 mark for the Silver Knights to register their first shot on the frame – a wrist shot that Clang snagged with his defense boxing out in front of him.

The physicality and chippiness cranked up as the clearly frustrated Silver Knights tried desperately to get back in the game.

Henderson pulled their goaltender with just under three minutes remaining but some great work by the Gulls man to man defense saw Stian Solberg shoot from behind his own goal line and hit the empty net at the other end. 4-1 Gulls.

San Diego coming back from an early one goal deficit to get their third straight win.

Post Game Notes:

Congrats Niky B!

An assist was not initially assigned but later added to the stat sheet on the AHL game center for Ryan Carpenters goal but the helper awarded to Niklas Brouillard was his 100th in a Gulls uniform the most by any defender in franchise history, Congrats Niky B!

Meanwhile In Tulsa

I was starting to get worried about Coulson Pitre but a quick glance at the Oilers scoring leaders shows he has 14 points in 14 games – tied for second among forwards and the only point per game forward. The only other player that is a point per game is Will Francis – who saw just two games of action back in October and just revealed that his Cancer returned October 20th. He is in remission as of December 9th so here is hoping he can rejoin the Oilers before season’s end and get back to the point per game pace he was putting up.

Standings Update

The win gives San Diego a 10-6-6 record and a .591 Points Percentage with 26 points. They sit fifth in points percentage just behind San Jose and sixth in points behind Calgary. The Pacific Division finally seems to be sorting itself out but is still a crazy tight race. Henderson was once second in the division but has now dropped to just outside the playoff picture in eighth. Only eight points separate the division leading Eagles and the team that currently holds the final playoff spot – the Condors. Seemingly the only way certain teams are going to be able to get some space between their rivals is by collecting points from other divisions.