At 4-11-1-1 (four wins, 11 losses, one overtime loss, one shootout loss) in the opening 17 games of the 2024-25 American Hockey League season, the San Diego Gulls haven’t exactly proven game-breakers. But the team, the top developmental minor league affiliate of the NHL Anaheim Ducks, has started to make a name for itself as a comeback squad.
The Gulls faced off their home schedule Oct. 18 with a 6-5 loss to the visiting Coachella Valley Firebirds, last season’s Pacific Division champions. The Firebirds built a seemingly comfortable 6-1 lead before the hosts rallied for four goals in the third period to push the crowd into a frenzy while coming up one-goal short.
Then there was the spirited Nov. 3 contest against the visiting Abbotsford Canucks. The Gulls trailed 4-1 early in the third period before rallying with five unanswered goals in the final stanza to pull off an electrifying 6-4 victory.
The out-of-nowhere 8-7 shootout loss to the visiting Bakersfield Condors on Nov. 16 again featured a trademark four-goal third-period rally. After falling behind by scores of 5-2 and 7-3, the Gulls sent the game into overtime where they earned a valuable standing point in the shootout tie-breaker loss.
While the Gulls may not be winning the majority of their games, they have proven entertaining.
A turnaround could be coming soon if the team’s most recent setbacks are any indicator — a 2-1 loss in San Jose on Nov. 13 in which the Gulls out-shot the host Barracuda 49-32 (20-7 in the first period), a 4-3 loss to the visiting Calgary Wranglers on Nov. 20 and last Friday’s 3-2 OT loss in Coachella Valley.
The Wranglers skated onto the Pechanga Arena San Diego ice with the top record in the 32-team AHL — 16 standings points ahead of the locals. The Gulls scored two short-handed goals on the Wranglers’ opening two power plays to hold a 3-2 lead through the first period.
The Wranglers haven’t compiled a near-perfect 13-3-1 record for nothing and responded with a short-handed goal of their own while adding a power play tally in the second period to go in front 4-3 on the scoreboard. The Canadian visitors then closed out the game by limiting the Gulls to just four shots in the third period.
Pavol Regenda earned second star of the game for the Gulls with a goal and assist.
Overall, the Wranglers posted a narrow 22-19 shot advantage while holding the hosts to single-digit shots in each period, but otherwise turned in a miserable showing on special teams. Los Gatos native Devin Cooley stopped 16 of 19 shots he faced to extend his season record to 10-2-0 with three shutouts, a 1.83 goals-against average and 0.947 save percentage.
Gulls netminder Oscar Dansk stopped 18 of 22 shots to see his record fall to 2-3-1 on the season with a 4.13 GAA and 0.871 save percentage.
It was evident that the Gulls rose to the challenge of facing the league’s top team.
In fact, the Gulls’ record might be somewhat misleading because of eight one-goal setbacks (four consecutive). The feathered bunch has a home game scheduled Nov. 30 against the Tucson Roadrunners and six more home games in December as hockey weather (and mania) descends on the region in earnest.
“The last few weeks we’ve been working hard to improve,” Gulls captain Ryan Carpenter said.
The Gulls swept the three-star awards in the shootout loss to the Condors. Carpenter (Oviedo, Fla.) earned first star with two goals and one assist while second star Josh Lopina (Minooka, Ill.) collected one goal and two assists. Rodwin Dionicio (Newark, N.J.) received third star billing with another three points on one goal and two assists.
“We’re capable of great things … our standard has to be that excellence that we’ve seen,” San Diego head coach Matt McIlvane said in regard to the heroic-style performance. “We’ve seen what we can do when our backs are against the wall. Learning to develop the focus to be able to perform at our best from the start is where we’re at as a group right now. We admire our character and the resiliency and the comeback, but our job is to play 60 minutes.”
With 15 goals between the teams, the atmosphere was electrifying at Pechanga Arena.
McIlvane was equally enthused by the Nov. 20 performance.
“The goal isn’t to be close … The goal is to score more than them,” the Gulls bench boss said. “We had a lot of great efforts from a lot of individuals. We felt like that Nico Myatovic-Jan Mysak-Coulson Pitre line had great energy for us the whole game, which is great to see. We had strong defense, zone coverage, for the most part. There were positives to pull from this game, but the objective is to come out on top.
“We’re certainly growing. We still have room to.”
The Gulls’ primary purpose, of course, is to develop young talent for the Ducks. The Gulls had two players called up to Anaheim this past week: right wing Sam Colangelo and defenseman Tyson Hinds. Colangelo, a 22-year-old forward from Stoneham, Mass., is 18 games into his professional career while Hinds (Gatineau, Quebec) is playing his second season in San Diego after logging 10 points in 71 games last season as a rookie.
Colangelo, a second-round pick (36th overall) in the 2020 NHL draft after playing three seasons at Northeastern University and one season at Western Michigan University, had collected nine goals and six assists for 15 points in 14 games this season with the Gulls before his call-up. Hinds had two goals in 14 games.
The Ducks later returned Hinds to the San Diego line-up on while Colangelo remains with the NHL team.
Colangelo has appeared in four games with the Ducks over the past two seasons, including one game this season.
The Ducks went out and procured several veteran players to bolster the Gulls’ lineup over the offseason and those players have, for the most part, produced.
Top point-getters through 15 games include Jansen Harkins (17 points), Colangelo (15 points), Carpenter (12 points), Roland McKe¬own (11 points) and Regenda (10 points). The top four players are new fulltime players in San Diego.
Who’s next to be called up? Fans can see for themselves.
