It took four years for the San Diego Gulls to make a return to the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup playoffs. It was a key moment for the franchise,but the stay was all too short in the postseason as the seventh-seeded Gulls were swept in their opening-round series by the second-seeded Colorado Eagles, two games to none, in the teams’ best-of-three Pacific Division matchup.
Colorado won the opening game, 3-0, on Wednesday, April 22, and sent the San Diegans packing for home with a 6-1 victory in Game 2 on Friday, April 24.
The Eagles (43-20-6-5 overall, 2-0 in the playoffs) advance to the semifinals with home-ice advantage in the next round.
The Gulls ended their season with a final 33-29-8-4 record, 0-2 in the playoffs.
Both games were played in Blue Federal Credit Union Arena in Loveland. Colo.
The Gulls were outscored 9-1 in the two games.
“Colorado is a top team in our division,San Diego head coach Matt McIlvane said. “They finished second. They’re very, very deep. I think they’re going to be pushing to come out of our division, I would imagine. With that being said, I think they’ve got a lot of offensive weapons. I think they play real well as a team defensively. I think that they’re difficult to play against, and they present a lot of challenges to you.”
The opening period of Game 2 featured three goals and a narrow 11-7 edge in shots by the hosts. Ronnie Attard netted his first goal of the playoffs at 4:32, assisted by Ivan Ivan and Chase Bradley. The visitors tied the game, 1-1, at 10:44 on a goal by Gulls season scoring leader Sasha Pastujov, his first of the postseason, from Noah Warren and Nikolas Brouillard.
But the Eagles came right back with the go-ahead goal just 1:07 later as Jayson Megna beat San Diego starter Damian Clara at 11:51.
The Gulls played with grit in the second period with a 12-7 advantage in shots in a bid to get back in the game. But the period ended scoreless as Colorado netminder Trent Miner, the No. 1 star in Game 1 with an 18-save shutout, stopped all 12 shots he faced in the period.
The Gulls held a 19-18 advantage in shot through two periods.
But the third period unraveled for the Southern California visitors as Alex Gagne tallied his first goal of the playoffs just 1:43 into the period to open up a 3-1 lead. Matt DiMarsico tacked on a power play goal at 7:34, his first of the postseason, for a 4-1 advantage.
The Eagles took flight with an 11-3 edge in shots in the final period to build a 30-22 advantage in that category and a 5-1 lead as Sean Behrens tallied his first goal of the playoffs at 12:10.
Clara remained between the pipes for the Gulls while Miner continued to exasperate the visitors in the Colorado cage.
With their season hanging in the balance, the Gulls were forced to go for broke with the extra attacker. It got worse as Ivan scored into an empty net with 3:52 to play in regulation to up the Colorado lead to 6-1.
It was clearly not the result San Diego head coach Matt McIlvane wanted as the Eagles stuffed four goals between the pipes in the third period and finished the game with five unanswered goals overall.
“It felt like we were building a lot of momentum in the second period,” McIlvane said. “I think a bit of the first we were fortunate to escape with a one-goal game. In the second, we were attacking, and I thought we had them on their heels. What you’re hoping is going to happen is that you can build that momentum into the third period and then we got caught up the ice and had trouble on a sort-out, and then they score early. Two-goal game at that point, and you’re still expecting push back. They were able to find too many looks, and we were pressing trying to make something happen, and opening up too many things. But it’s for sure just disappointing.”
The hosts finished with a 13-6 advantage in shots in the third period and a 31-25 edge for the game. The Gulls finished 0-fo-2 on the power play while the Eagles were 1-for-3.
Clara stopped 25 of 30 shots while Miner got the win with 24 saves on 25 shots.
Miner finished the short series with 42 saves on 43 shots (0.977 save percentage). Clara faced 56 shots in the two games with 49 saves (0.875 save percentage).
The game ended on a sour note as six penalties were handed out at the 18:59 mark of the third period: three to the Gulls (Roland McKeown, Justin Bailey and Roger McQueen) charged with misconducts for continuing altercations and likewise misconducts to Colorado’s Gagne, Taylor Makar and T.J. Tynan).
McIlvane pointed to the progress made by his team. San Diego’s 33 overall wins and 17 road wins are the most since 2018-19 when the Gulls finished with 36 and 18 respectively. The Gulls’ 78 regular season points is up 12 points from the 2024-25 season where they finished with 66.
“When you zoom out, there’s certainly progress,” he said. “It’s hard to feel any of that right now because it’s such a sour taste. But it’s another step in the right direction and what is going to happen inevitably from this is we’ve all got a taste of what AHL playoff hockey feels like. And as we’re building, there’s lessons that we’re going to be able to grab from this moving forward, for what we’re going to need to do to perform in the playoffs.”
The six-foot-five Clara stopped 25 of-27 shots in his Calder Cup playoff debut in Game 1.
“Colorado played a heck of a game, and I think that there were moments of the game where we were getting to the way that we wanted to play,” McIlvane said. “I think that combination of some penalty issues and allowing them too many big opportunities shifted the momentum, I felt, in the game. It’s still 1-0 and then, in a shift, we’ve got two breakaways and an open net that bounces over our stick. Then in that same shift, they go down and score, and so it was a big momentum swing in that part of the game. But I think for us, there’s opportunity for us to play better, certainly both with and without the puck.”
The Gulls were making their first postseason appearance since the 2022 Calder Cup playoffs and found themselves staring at a 1-0 first-period deficit on a power play goal by Colorado’s Tynan at 14:07. Shots favored the hosts 11-6 in the opening stanza.
The Eagles made it a 2-0 game on a goal by Tristen Nielsen at 2:38 of the second period. Jason Polin picked up the lone assist awarded on the play. Colorado posted a narrow 9-6 edge in shots in the period for a 20-12 advantage through 40 minutes.
There was no scoring in the third period until Makar’s empty net goal with 50 seconds to play. The hosts compiled a 7-6 edge in shots to close the final period in the game for a 27-18 total.
The third period was penalty-free, though the Gulls could not take advantage of the situation.Miner stopped all six shots he faced in the period.
Colorado limited the Gulls to single-digit shots in each period to hamper the visitors’ comeback bid in front of 5,089 fans.
“He was great,” McIlvane underscored of Clara’s performance. “He made too many grade-A saves. All of a sudden there’s a big goalie sliding across the crease, making some gigantic saves. So, I thought that he was excellent. I think that he certainly gave us an opportunity to win.”
