It’s a crowded perch.
The Padres find themselves, drum roll, in Major League Baseball’s National League Divisional Series, the SDSU football team is still trying to get on track under new head coach Sean Lewis, the high school and community college fall sports seasons are in full swing, and add to that, the NFL season has kicked off.
Amid all this, the San Diego Gulls are getting ready to face off their 2024-25 American Hockey League season as the top developmental affiliate of the NHL Anaheim Ducks.
The region’s die-hard hockey fans will be certain to keep a vigilant eye on second-year Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane, who iced his first season behind the team’s bench with a less than spectacular 26-35-10-1 record.
A fast rewind of the 2022-23 season shows that the Gulls finished 16 points out of the AHL’s generous 23-team Calder Cup playoff tournament, second to last by one standings point in the 10-team Pacific Division and 28th overall in terms of winning percentage in the 32-team league.
In other words, it wasn’t a noteworthy debut season for the franchise’s newest head coach. But it was, at least, a starting point by which to measure future success.
In all honesty, however, it wasn’t a failed season despite the Gulls inability to qualify for the AHL playoffs for the second consecutive season. The Gulls’ primary purpose is to develop talent for the Ducks, and that includes young talent such as draft picks just coming out of Junior Hockey for their first whack at the pros.
Ducks prospect Drew Helleson returns for more seasoning with the Gulls. Photo by Phillip Brents
The Gulls did their part by sending players throughout the season to the Ducks on call-ups, some of whom remained with the parent club for extended periods of time, most notably rookie defenseman Olen Zellweger, a second-round pick (34th overall) in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. Zellweger appeared in 44 games for the Gulls last season with 12 goals and 37 points; he suited up 26 times for the Ducks with two goals and nine points.
Other recent Gulls still on the Ducks roster include center Troy Terry, right wing Trevor Zegras and goaltender Lukas Dostal.
Dostal joined the Ducks for good during the 2022-23 season, appearing in 44 NHL games with 14 wins and one shutout last season.
Still, the 2023-24 campaign marked the Gulls’ third consecutive losing season following a first place Pacific Division finish (44-26-17-1) and trip to the Western Conference Finals against the Central Division champion Chicago Wolves in 2020-21.
While McIlvane remains on top of that developmental angle, new Gulls general manager Rick Paterson has come on board to reach out a helping hand.
The Ducks made several off-season trades and free-agent signings with a specific purpose of shoring up their AHL lineup in a bid to provide a better environment (read winning atmosphere) in which to develop their draft picks.
Fans got a preview of what they hope are better things to come at Saturday’s exhibition game at Pechanga Arena between the Gulls and their Southern California arch-rival, the Ontario Reign. Players on both teams were still competing for ice time, roster spots and bragging rights in the regional rivalry to give the game — a 5-4 win by the Reign — some meaning.
The Gulls opened scoring, then fell behind 4-1 before rallying to knot the score, 4-4, late in the third period.
“There was a lot of character that we showed,” McIlvane said. “I think as far as being able to play to an identity and be difficult to play against, I thought there was a lot of really good moments. There were so many great teachable moments too. For a lot of our first-year guys, there’s specific errors that are easy fixes. I thought we saw a lot of really good things from our team and plenty that we can build on moving into next week.”
The Gulls are set to jump-start the new AHL season with a two-game road trip to Toronto, Canada, Oct. 12-13, while the Reign host the San Jose Barracuda Oct. 12-13.
The Gulls host the defending Pacific Division and Western Conference champion Coachella Valley Firebirds Friday, Oct. 18, to face off their home schedule at Pechanga Arena. The Firebirds have finished runner-up in the last two Calder Cup Finals to the Hershey Bears.
Prime pick-ups during the off-season for the Gulls include forward Ryan Carpenter, a veteran of 392 NHL games and a Stanley Cup finalist with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2018, and defensive specialists Dillon Heatherington (Lake Erie in 2016) and Roland KcKeown (Charlotte in 2019), both former Calder Cup champions.
McIlvane is looking on that veteran group for leadership.
“They have two jobs while they’re here,” the Gulls bench boss said. “One, perform and help us win hockey games. Two, be the example and leader so that our young guys have someone to look up to. I thought they performed today. It’s not just that, we’ve got other guys in the supporting cast, but yeah, character was a huge part of the ability to be able to climb back in the third.”
Carpenter and McKeown both recorded a goal and assist in Saturday’s exhibition game loss.
“It was a lot of fun,” Carpenter said. “You kind of get tired of playing against the same guys in camp, and any time you’re in a game, there’s just a little more pace and a little more physicality. And so, you’re trying to get your timing down, trying to build some chemistry and also trying to execute the systems that we want to implement this year.”
The Ducks also signed goaltender Oskar Dansk, with seven AHL seasons and six NHL games to his credit, to a two-way contract.
Overall, the Gulls will play seven of their first eight games on the road, including six games north of the border. A good start is essential. Last season’s San Diego team sagged rather early in its schedule with a 13-game winless streak (0-10-3). It was an uphill climb almost from the start.
Add call-ups and injuries to the mix and the season quickly took a wrong turn.
But a new season brings new expectations.
Included on the Gulls’ training camp roster were 10 Ducks draft picks, including one first-round, two second-round and four third-round selections.
McIlvane coached the Ducks unit in September’s annual Rookie Faceoff tournament to highlight the NHL team’s rookie camp. The Ducks finished 1-1-1 in their three games in the 10-game, seven-team event. Participating teams besides the Ducks included the Colorado Avalanche, L.A. Kings, San Jose Sharks, Seattle Kraken, Vegas Golden Knights and the new Utah Hockey Club.
The Ducks topped Colorado, 4-3, before absorbing a 7-2 setback to San Jose and rounded out the trio of games with a 2-1 overtime loss to the Kings.
Cutter Gauthier, Sam Colangelo and Tristan Luneau were the standouts for the Ducks. Colangelo, a second-round draft pick by Anaheim in 2020, appeared in four games with the Gulls last season with a goal and three assists while Luneau, a second-round pick in the 2022 draft, suited up six times for the Gulls with a pair of assists.
The Golden Knights capped their rookie faceoff record at 3-0-0 following a 2-0 win over the Kings and identical 5-3 decisions over Seattle and Utah.
Ice chips
The Gulls are celebrating their 10th season representing America’s Finest City.
The team will have 25 weekend dates among its 36 regular season home games this season, including nine Friday, 14 Saturday and two Sunday games. The Gulls’ 72-game regular season schedule will include 64 games against Pacific Division teams, including eight against the Reign.
The Gulls will play 10 different Western Conference teams, including four games against the Central Division’s Iowa Wild. The San Diegans will host Toronto, from the AHL’s Eastern Conference, for two games on Jan. 29 and Jan. 31 to complete the team’s four-game inter-conference set.
MLB on deck
The Dodgers erased a 5-3 deficit to score a 7-5 win in Saturday’s series opener before the visiting Padres responded to with a commanding 10-2 win in Game 2 on Sunday to even the best-of-five divisional series at a win apiece.
The Padres were set to host Game 3 on Tuesday and Game 4 on Wednesday with a return to Dodger Stadium, if necessary, for a deciding Game 5 on Friday.
The Pads finished runner-up in the NL West standings to Los Angeles by five games to cap the regular season. Other NL post-season qualifiers included the Philadelphia Phillies (East Division champions), Milwaukee Brewers (Central Division champions) and wild cards Atlanta Braves and New York Mets.
The Padres eliminated the Braves by scores of 4-0 and 5-4 in their best-of-three wild card series while the Mets upset the Brewers two games to one.
In the American League, division winners included the New York Yankees (Eastern champion), Cleveland Guardians (Central champion) and Houston Astros (West champion) along with wild cards Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers.
The Tigers eliminated the defending World Series champion Astros in a two-game wild card series sweep.
Game report: Gulls, Reign face-off in exhibition match-up
Fans were not entirely clueless about the players wearing San Diego uniforms in Saturday’s exhibition game against the Ontario Reign.
Returners in Gulls sweaters included forwards Nathan Gaucher, Jaxsen Wiebe, Judd Caulfield, Travis Howe, Sasha Patsujov, Pavol Regenda, Josh Lopina, and defensemen Drew Helleson and Tyson Hinds. Scratches included Nikita Nesterenko, Sam Colangelo,
Newcomers included forwards Ryan Carpenter, Carson Meyer, Nico Myatovic, Yego Sidorov and Jan Mysak, defensemen Dillon Heatherington, Rodwin Dionicio, Roland McKeown and Roman Kinal and goaltenders Vyacheslav Buteyets and Luke Lush.
Carpenter, a Florida native, led the San Jose Barracuda to the Western Conference Finals in 2017 and later advanced to the NHL Stanley Cup Finals with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2018. He is a veteran of 392 NHL games (with 32 goals and 84 points) and is expected to help provide scoring punch at the AHL level.
Heatherington and McKeown both won Calder Cup championships (Heatherington with Lake Erie in 2016 and McKeown with Charlotte in 2019) and will help brace the defensive end.
Buteyets, a sixth-round pick by Anaheim in the 2022 draft, started between the pipes.
Even at this late date in training camp, players on both the Gulls and Reign were still competing for ice time, roster spots, and bragging rights in the regional rivalry.
“The guys are scratching their heads … they know the numbers,” McIlvane said prior to Saturday’s preseason test.
“It’s always fun to be back at Pechanga,” said Caulfield, who logged 10 goals and 26 points in 61 games last season in San Diego. “We haven’t played here in a while. We always know we have great fans.”
It was fun for the fans to cheer for their favorite players despite the home team coming up short by a 5-4 score to the hated out-of-towners.
The Gulls lit the lamp first as Regenda backhanded a feed from Meyer at 13:52 of the first period. Carpenter drew the secondary assist.
The Reign generally had the better of play with a 16-8edge in shots. Buteyets had 16 saves for the hosts while Ontario starter Erik Portillo stopped seven of the eight pucks fired in his direction.
It was a different story in the second period as the Reign out-scored the Gulls 3-0 to assume a 3-1 lead through 40 minutes. The hosts recorded an 11-9 edge in shots, but Portillo stopped all 11 shots he faced for 18 of 19 in the two periods while Buteyets saved six of nine shots for 22 saves on 25 shots.
Tate Singleton (1:32 from Joe Hicketts), Luke Rowe (9:25 from Jake Wise and Singleton) and Carter Savoie (13:56 from Martin Chromiak and Francesco Pinelli) each scored their first preseason goals to lift the Reign into the lead.
The Gulls killed two penalties in each of the opening two periods while the Reign was perfect on one penalty kill in each of the first two periods.
Ontario made it 4-1 with the team’s fourth unanswered goal just 1:45 into the third period. Singleton scored his second goal of the game, assisted by Wise and Quinn Olson, as she slipped in behind the San Diego netminder on a lax defensive play.
The Gulls pulled their netminder shortly afterwards for an extra attacker and cashed in at 3:33 to reduce the deficit to two goals, 4-2. Carpenter scored his first goal in a San Diego uniform, assisted by Regenda and McKeown.
The horn sounded again at 5:24 as the hosts scored their second consecutive goal in the period to trim the Ontario lead to 4-3. Lopina got the even-strength marker, assisted by Caulfield and Heatherington.
That seemed to energize the Orange and Black as the shot disparity narrowed on the scoreboard. The Gulls went on the man-advantage with 6:15 to play and it took just six seconds to tie the score 4-4, Newcomers collected all three points on the game-knotting tally: McKeown scored the goal and Carpenter and Dionicio each picked up the assists.
But the lead lasted only 1:17 until Pinelli pushed the visitors in front, 5-4, on a shot just under Buteyets’s glove. 5-4 Ontario. Assists went to Rowe and Jakub Dvorak.
San Diego coach Matt McIlvane pulled his netminder twice in the final two minutes: the first with 1:20 to play and the second time with 45.2 seconds to go. The hosts were unable to net the equalizer, however, on both opportunities.
Final shots were 33-31 in favor of the Reign. Carpenter was awarded first star of the game with one goal and one assist while McKeown was the game’s second star with one goal and one assist. Ontario’s Singleton was the third star with two goals and one assist.
Portillo had 27 saves on 31 shots while Buteyets made 28 saves on 33 shots.
Returners accounted for two goals for the Gulls while newcomers also accounted for two goals.
McIlvane was encouraged by what he saw from his team’s never-give-up attitude.
“We were down two, so going into the third and to give up that fourth goal … but I think guys on the bench, as cheesy as it is, still believing, still trying to win your shift,” McIlvane said. “Once you get one, and once you’ve got that four-on-four goal by (by Lopina), I think it gave us some momentum. We felt like we had a lot of time to tie it up, which we did.
“As a group it’s the first game together, but when you find a way to tie the game up and just sticking to the discipline and systems and reminding each other what we need to do, especially as the ice gets worse towards the end of the game and chippy. It stinks being on the losing end of things, but at the same time, knowing in the back of our heads that if we are ever down we have to compete and maybe the skill to come back.”
The Gulls now gear up for a history-making two-game road trip to Toronto, Canada, to face off the 2024-25 AHL regular season against the Toronto Marlies.
Face-offs
Coachella Valley will host the 2025 AHL All-Star Classic in Palm Desert Feb. 2-3.
Photos by Phillip Brents
