2025-2026 Game 44: San Diego Gulls vs Henderson Silver Knights

San Diego, California. Riding high on back to back wins over the Firebirds and then the Reign, the San Diego Gulls next welcomed the Henderson Silver Knights to Pechanga to try make it a trifecta revenge tour.

With the Olympic Break in full effect and the recently announce reassignment of Tim Washe, Sam Colangelo was also slotted into the line-up in a sneaky assignment that was never mentioned. The two additions gave the Gulls perhaps their strongest and deepest forward core all season. As mentioned after the last game – Konnor Smith drew in for the injured Stian Solberg.

Calle Clang was given the start with Suchanek backing up once again.

Coulson Pitre, Cal Burke and Travis Howe were the scratches.

First Period:

San Diego hit the Silver Knights with speed and the open ice created allowed for some nice chances early on. Justin Bailey – the speed-man himself – got things started as he skated into a nice pass from Jan Mysak to finish a Gulls rush up ice. 1-0 Gulls.

The Silver Knights mounted a slight response but Clang was equal to the task, turning aside back to back shots from Mitch McLain.

Play was largely back and forth until time crossed over the midway mark and San Diego was awarded the games first Power Play with Trevor Connelly called for tripping as he felled Tyson Hinds after he disabused him of the puck in the Gulls zone and attempted to skate up ice with it.

The top unit looked their most dangerous yet – winning the face-off in the offensive zone, sending it back to the point and passing around before seamlessly sliding it down low. It seemed all too easy as Matthew Phillips was able to feed Ryan Carpenter in the low slot bumper position. 2-0 Gulls.

The Silver Knights eventually replied more than a few minutes later as Ryan Carpenter was called for slashing in front. The Silver Knights went tit for tat – scoring a Power Play goal of their own as they slowly began to grow momentum and established their trademark heavy game. Their Power Play unit eventually connecting in the second half of their minor as they were able to easily send passes across the Gulls killing box. 2-1 Gulls.

A run of penalties saw out the rest of the period as first Ryan Carpenter was whistled again – this time for tripping and then Nikita Nesterenko drew his own call toward the end of that penalty before Ryan Carpenter took his third straight in the final 21 seconds of the frame.

The Gulls heading to the first intermission up 2-1 but starting to secede momentum to the Silver Knights by allowing them to play their heavy game and get under their skin.

Second Period: San Diego Gulls 2 – Henderson Silver Knights 1

A somewhat frenetic start to the second saw the Gulls enjoy the majority of the better chances as both the third line and second line put up good looks on the Henderson net. The new look top line featuring the potent combination of Matthew Phillips and Yegor Sidorov stepped onto the ice next.

Just under four minutes in a nice head-man pass by Konnor Smith to Matthew Phillips in flight saw the speedy forward skate in alone on the Silver Knights net. His forehand to backhand moved was stopped but he stuck with the play, collected the rebound to the side of the net and fed it back out to a following Yegor Sidorov who made no mistake. 3-1 Gulls.

Henderson hit right back once more. Catching the Gulls watching the puck in their own zone and not playing the man as they should. 3-2 Gulls.

Play settled down for the next eight or so minutes but the Gulls kept up the offense and regained their four goal lead as Justin Bailey used his speed to slip in and out of a would be check from to Henderson defenders before faking a pass and sending a low chance on net. The rebound created sat perfectly for Sasha Pastujov on the left side and he put it home. 4-2 Gulls.

Henderson once again came with an instant response but this time the Gulls held their own but things got a tad violent and Tristan Luneau engaged in a rare fight in which he held his own with the Silver Knights Riley McKay.

With Luneau now sitting for five minutes the Silver Knights took advantage and his absence became immediately evident as Henderson scored two goals in quick succession. The first a shot from the slot that Clang looked slow to get set on and the second a cross-ice one-timer from sniper Raphael Lavoie that he had no chance to stop. 4-4 tie game.

Konnor Smith made himself known with a huge hit behind the Gulls net – in response to a late and particularly large hit laid on Yegor Sidorov in front of the players bench. He was challenged to a fight at center ice and towered over his opponent as he pummeled him and eventually caught him with an uppercut to finish.

With less than a minute later a strange unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was levied to Sasha Pastujov – presumably for something he said from the bench as the Officials skated by.

The bad blood continued as another scuffle broke out behind the Gulls net after the whistle and play was momentarily paused again with less than ten seconds left in the period. Matching minors were assessed to Caulfield and the Silver Knights Trevor Connelly to close out the lengthy penalty list on the period.

San Diego surrendering a multi goal lead to enter the final frame tied up at four – shots were 13-9 Henderson on the period with the shot map showing exactly how and why Henderson got back to tie things up.

Third Period: San Diego Gulls 4 – Henderson Silver Knights 4

Starting the third on the penalty kill the Gulls were glad to see Calle Clang seemed to reset as he calmly shifted across and swallowed up a one-time chance.

Killing the minor the Gulls went back to the attack while the Silver Knights went back to trying to disrupt them from their game with heavy hits and nefarious stick work behind the play.

Matthew Philips got his own revenge for some target treatment he had been receiving all night as he was quick to jump on a loose puck that was over-skated by a Henderson defencemen. The quick skating veteran sending it into the Silver Knights net and passed a stunned Jesper Vikman. 5-4 Gulls.

It was all San Diego for the next five minutes as the Gulls played a concerted dump and chase game while equally frustrating the Silver Knights in the neutral zone. One such neutral zone turn over led to a Gulls zone entry and an inspired passing play as all five players sent the puck around the Henderson unit. Playing keep away until they could spot a shooting lane, which they did and as Tyson Hinds sent the puck on net from the blue line the Gulls collapsed around the Henderson net to dig for the rebound. Roland McKeown was the first to find it. 6-4 Gulls.

San Diego kept up their conservative game – maintaining possession and being sure to gain the red line before dumping the puck at each opportunity. Their focused refrain kept the Silver Knights from re-establishing their heavy game as time ran down.

With just over three minutes remaining the Silver Knights pulled Vikman for the extra attacker and as they ran the Gulls zone it felt like they might close the gap but an errant pass ricocheted in the Gulls favor. Sailing down the ice and into the Henderson net for an empty net goal that was eventually credited to Noah Warren as the last known Gulls player to have touched the puck before the Silver Knights gaff. 7-4 Gulls.

A Tim Washe tripping call gave Henderson a six on four Power Play for the last two minutes of action and Calle Clang vented some more frustration at both the Officials and his own players as he directed some punches with his blocker at a Henderson player whacking at his glove after the whistle.

Time expired to end the high scoring and heavy hitting night and the Gulls skated away the victors with a final score of 7-4.

Post Game Notes:

More Love For Tristan

If it wasn’t obvious how valuable Tristan Luneau is to this team – just look at the two goals that were scored in quick succession to tie this game up in the second. They were both scored while Luneau was sitting in the penalty box serving a five minute major for fighting. He also saved a goal early in the third on the penalty kill, laying out his body to prevent a sure goal during a goal mouth scramble. I would hate to think what would happen if he were out of the line-up for any reason.

Hitting Their Stride

The third straight win puts the Gulls into tie with both the Firebirds and Barracuda for points with 51 but would keep them in sixth place in the division by the regulation wins tiebreaker. Were the playoffs to start today they would face the Bakersfield Condors. It also marks the first time in a while that they have beaten one of the three non-playoff teams after some tough losses to the Canucks of late. The added fire power from the Ducks is coming at just the right time but other teams will be receiving a similar injection. The Gulls slight advantage is they have no Olympians on their roster. The Silver Knights (sort of – Rjonberg has been up in Vegas lately), Firebirds, Canucks, Condors and Barracuda all do. The Gulls face the Condors next in a home and home series this weekend and face the Barracuda next week before the Olympics conclude on the 23rd. This Bakersfield match-up will provide a true test of how they might fare as potential playoff opponents….

Player Movements

The NHL has a roster freezer during the Olympic break but you can expect business to start right up again once players come back with the trade deadline looming March the 6th. The Ducks are one of the many teams currently in the playoff picture and after a brief spell of poor play – starting to string the wins together on a consistent basis again to climb back up the standings. This would make them buyers at the deadline but I cannot seeing GM Verbeek making any major changes. It has been almost ten years since the Ducks have been in the playoffs – it is hard to go shopping for something when you are not sure what you need. They have enough veterans – courtesy of the New York Rangers. They have reasonable goal-tending depth for a team coming out of a rebuild. The likely only questions are on defense. If Verbeek did make a move I wonder if he attempts to package Drew Helleson for a veteran defender. Somewhat ironic given that is how he was acquired in the first place. The Ducks were to be rumored to be in on Artemi Panarin in early discussions but ultimately were not his desired destination as the Kings snapped him up for a steal. From a Gulls perspective – all we can hope is that the Ducks do not mess with the Gulls chemistry too much come deadline and even perhaps acquire them another forward or two to cover for the eventual recalls of Colangelo and Washe.