The high school roller hockey season is finally ready to roll as the Metro Conference readies to face off its 2025 schedule with 10 teams and a new look format.
League membership among Sweetwater Union High School District schools increases by one team with the return of the Chula Vista Spartans to the outdoor Castle Park High School rink. League alignment changes with the addition, though the district retains its three league format.
Fifteen games are scheduled for the opening week of play Jan. 6-9. Games this season are 30 minutes in length as opposed to 45 minutes in previous years. The shortening in length comfortably allows for five games to be played each night.
The first game in each five-game block is scheduled to start at 4:45 p.m. Games should extend through 7:35 p.m. Castle Park and Bonita Vista get the opportunity to face off the 2025 season with a 4:45 p.m. inter-league matchup on Jan. 6.
Other games on Jan. 6 include Southwest versus Sweetwater at 5:20 p.m., Eastlake against Chula Vista at 5:55 p.m., Hilltop versus San Ysidro at 6:30 p.m. and Southwest versus Chula Vista at 7:05 p.m.
Teams may play more than one game per evening session. Both Southwest and Chula Vista get the jump on the rest of the district with two games on opening night.
Likewise, Castle Park will play two games on Wednesday, Jan. 8, while Mar Vista and Sweetwater will each play two games on Thursday, Jan. 9.
Bonita Vista returns as the defending Mesa League champion while Hilltop, last year’s South Bay League champion, moves over to the Mesa League this season. Mar Vista and Sweetwater shared last season’s Pacific League title. They both will continue their rivalry in the South Bay League this season.
The Mesa League includes four teams while the South Bay League and Pacific League both have three teams in the lineup.
The Mesa League muster roll includes Eastlake, Bonita Vista, Hilltop and Otay Ranch while the South Bay League includes Mar Vista, Sweetwater and San Ysidro. Castle Park, Southwest and Chula Vista will vie for supremacy in the Pacific League, which will crown a new champion this season.
Likewise, the South Bay League, with Hilltop’s exit, will have a new champion in 2025.
CIF Roller Hockey
Metro Conference Game Schedule
Monday, Jan. 6
Castle Park-Bonita Vista, 4:45=5:15 p.m.
Southwest-Sweetwater, 5:20-5:50 p.m.
Eastlake-Chula Vista, 5:55-6:25 p.m.
Hilltop-San Ysidro, 6:30-7 p.m.
Southwest-Chula Vista, 7:05-7:35 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 8
Sweetwater-Castle Park, 4:45-5:15 p.m.
Mar Vista-San Ysidro, 5:20-5:50 p.m.
Castle Park-Chula Vista, 5:55-6:25 p.m.
Southwest-Eastlake, 6:30-7 p.m.
Bonita Vista-Hilltop, 7:05-7:35 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 9
Southwest-Castle Park, 4:45-5:15 p.m.
Sweetwater-Hilltop, 5:20-5:50 p.m.
Bonita Vista-Mar Vista, 5:55-6:25 p.m.
Eastlake-San Ysidro, 6:30-7 p.m.
Mar Vista-Sweetwater, 7:05-7:35 p.m.
2023-24 SEASON IN REVIEW
Sweetwater District Team Records
Bonita Vista Barons 10-2
Eastlake Titans 10-2
Hilltop Lancers 10-2
Otay Ranch Mustangs 6-6
Mar Vista Mariners 6-6
Sweetwater Red Devils 5-6-1
San Ysidro Cougars 3-9
Castle Park Trojans 2-9-1
Southwest Raiders 1-11
***
Metro-Mesa League standings: Bonita Vista 4-2, Eastlake 4-2, Otay Ranch 1-5
Metro-South Bay League standings; Hilltop 6-0, San Yisdro 2-4, Castle Park 1-5
Metro-Pacific League standings: Mar Vista 4-2, Sweetwater 4-2, Southwest 1-5
***
Top Points Leaders
Final Regular Season
Aariel Nichols (Hilltop) 52 goals, 4 assists – 56 points
Jacob Hunter (Bonita Vista) 38 goals, 14 assists – 52 points
Andrew Madrigal (Bonita Vista) 26 goals, 15 assists – 41 points
Emilio Navarrete (Eastlake) 24 goals, 14 assists – 38 points
Chris Rollbusch (Eastlake) 20 goals, 16 assists – 36 points
Gianni Silva-Cestero (Hilltop) 25 goals, 6 assists – 31 points
Sid Jonason (Eastlake) 14 goals, 7 assists – 21 points
Nick Bernal (Otay Ranch) 15 goals, 4 assists – 19 points
Riley McElroy (Eastlake) 10 goals, 9 assists – 19 points
Riley Owen (Mar Vista) 12 goals, 6 assists – 18 points
Dayna Coates (Otay Ranch) 5 goals, 11 assists – 16 points
Diego Falomir (Otay Ranch) 8 goals, 6 assists – 14 points
Achilles Tan (Sweetwater) 10 goals, 3 assists – 13 points
Emery Lavendar (Mar Vista): 8 goals, 5 assists – 13 points
Clara Armenta (Castle Park) 9 goals, 3 assists – 12 points
Sam Chavez (Eastlake) 5 goals, 6 assists – 11 points
Alyzette Sierra (San Ysidro) 7 goals, 2 assists – 9 points
Angelica Cantu (Southwest) 7 goals, 2 assists – 9 points
Mason Paulo (Otay Ranch) 6 goals, 3 assists – 9 points
Adam Ibarra (Eastlake) 4 goals, 5 assists – 9 points
Israel Jurado (Bonita Vista) 6 goals, 2 assists – 8 points
Vanessa Camacho (San Ysidro) 4 goals, 4 assists – 8 points
Avery Jerman (Eastlake) 4 goals, 4 assists – 8 points
AHL Report
Gulls ready to face off 2025 portion of their 2024-25 schedule with New Year’s night game against Cuda
The San Diego Gulls will get a chance to test themselves against one of the American Hockey League’s upper echelon teams when they host the San Jose Barracuda in a special New Year’s night face-off at Pechanga Arena.
The Barracuda enters the Jan. 1 Pacific Division clash in second place in the division standings with a 17-10-0-2 record and 36 points — seven points behind the front-running Calgary Wranglers (21-9-1), who possess the top record in the 32-team AHL. By contrast, the Gulls sit in ninth place in the 10-team division with a 9-17-1-2 record and 21 standings points.
The game could be a toss-up with San Jose riding a 5-4-0-1 mark in its last 10 games and San Diego posting a 4-5-0-1 record in its last 10 contests.
The Gulls climbed out of their early hole in the division standings with a five-game point streak (nine our of a possible 10 points) to put some distance between themselves and the cellar-dwelling Henderson Silver Knights. But a four-game road losing streak has narrowed the Gulls’ lead over the Silver Knights to five points.
The Gulls dropped both teams in Tucson, coming up short by scores of 2-0 and 5-1 to the host Roadrunners on Dec. 16 and Dec. 18. San Diego then slid in its two games in Colorado, dropping 5-1 and 5-3 contests to the host Eagles.
Colorado improved to 16-8-1-2 with 35 points to challenge San Jose for second place in the division standings while Tucson is 16-11-1 with 33 points in fifth place.
The Gulls have 43 games remaining on their 72-game regular season schedule but each game is becoming important, which increases the excitement level.
Certainly, both games last weekend upon the Gulls’ return to their home perch were of the exciting nature.
On Friday, Dec. 27, the Gulls rallied to post a 4-3 shootout win over their Southern California arch-rivals, the Ontario Reign, before engaging the Bakersfield Condors in another SoCal rivalry contest. The Gulls rallied from a 2-0 first-period deficit on the strength of three unanswered second period goals to lead 3-2. But the Condors turned the tables on the hosts with a run of three goals of their own to steal a comeback 5-3 victory and move seven points ahead of the Gulls in the division standings.
Ontario (17-8-0-1) stands as one of the hottest teams in the league with a 7-2-0-1 record in its last 10 games and 5-0-0-1 run in its last six games.
The Gulls were able to compete with the NHL Los Angeles Kings’ top developmental team.
San Diego faced three deficits in the rivalry clash at 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 but managed to overcome them all. The Gulls sent the game into overtime on captain Ryan Carpenter’s sixth goal of the season and second tally of the game at 8:31 of the second period.
Carpenter had a shorthanded goal and power play goal for the Gulls in front of 8,009. He tied the game, 1-1, with his shorty at 16:05 of the first period. Francesco Pinelli scored twice in the opening period for the Reign, which took a 2-1 lead through 20 minutes.
Pavol Regenda and Dillon Heatherington provided the assists on Carpenter’s shorthanded goal. The assist was Regenda’s 10th of the season and second for Heatherington, who had been out of the lineup.
Yegor Sidorov continued his point tear in December with his ninth goal of the season to knot the score, 2-2, at 1:12 of the second period. Roland McKeown picked up his eighth assist of the season while Regenda notched his 11th helper.
However, the Reign’s Arthur Kaliyev tallied his first goal of the season exactly two minutes later to push his team into the lead at 3-2.
That lasted for 5:29 until Carpenter leveled the score on the power play, assisted by Sasha Pastijov and McKeown, who registered his ninth assist of the season.
There was no scoring in either the third period or five-minute overtime period. In a four-round shootout, Sidorov netted the winner for San Diego in the 1-0 tiebreaker. Sidorov has had an eventful December so far with 10 points in 10 games.
Oscar Dansk allowed three goals in 30:28 before Calle Clang came on to stop all 13 shots he faced in relief to record the goaltending win. Erik Portillo stopped 31 of 34 shots for Ontario.
The Gulls hung in the game despite going just 1-for-8 with the man-advantage.
San Diego head coach Matt McIlvane applauded the resiliency of his team.
“Our team has shown multiple times this season that being able to come back from behind is not a problem and including some really big deficits,” McIlvane said. “So, it was one of these games. It was a strange game all the way around, all the power plays, all the penalty kills, the puck shot out of play. It’s a little Helter Skelter, as you may expect coming back from a break, but to be able to show some resiliency and play to our identity, I think we did that really well.
“It’s like a ketchup bottle. You shake it a bunch of times, and then all of a sudden, all the goals come for those guys. And it’s just a matter of time. They’re both banging around the net constantly. So, it’s obviously huge for our team that they were able to get rewarded.
“Two teams that are close in proximity, and there’s certainly history. Two very competitive groups, and I like the way that our guys stood up and stood with them.”
“We fought for each other,” Regenda said. “We should be showing that this is our home, we’re showing the strength of the team. We need to keep on doing stuff we’re doing. Today looked pretty good, we had a couple good goals and a power play too. We’re happy with that.
“Everybody here wants to play in the playoffs. We still have a lot growing, 50 games left. I feel like we had a really big improvement from the start of the season. We want to keep playing longer than last year. So that’s the goal, and that’s what we’re fighting for.”
“We want to be hard to play against at home and have an identity at home,” Carpenter echoed. “We weren’t proud of our road trip, you know, finishing that break. Sometimes, maybe it couldn’t have come at a better time for us just to have a little bit of a mental reset. Sometimes, time away from the rink, time with family, and just to get your mind off of the game, you come back maybe a little more energized. These games are hard to play sometimes. You’ve been away from the rink for a couple days, and it can feel sloppy. So, I thought, defensively, overall, we played really good as a team. And you know, both of our goalies playing here, especially being able to come in and shut it down and shut it down there at the end in the shootout. But you know, to limit their shots. We probably would like to be a little sharper on the power play. I’m sure it’s something we’ll continue to build on. But ultimately, to take to get a power play goal and a shorthand goal helped us.
“With us being behind in the standing, all these games matter to us, whether we’re playing a Pacific Division game or not, our rival or not. That’s just how we want to start to play as a team, more consistent. I thought we were when we were on that little winning stretch. It felt like we were hard to play against and defending hard and making it hard for teams to score forechecking hard. It was nice to get back to that tonight.”
SoCal showcase, Part 2
The Gulls and Condors have been Southern California rivals since the West Coast Hockey League and now extending into the SHL. They renewed their rivalry Saturday night at Pechanga Arena with the Condors one rung above the Gulls in the Pacific Division standings.
Saturday’s game doubled as a tale of two goaltenders: Colin Delia for Bakersfield and Vyacheslav Buteyets for San Diego.
Delia, who played his youth hockey career in Southern California, has played at several levels, including the highest in North America. He has 52 career NHL games under his skates with a 19-18-7 record, 3.51 GAA and 0.897 save percentage. He’s logged 163 career AHL games with a 2.98 GAA and 0.900 save percentage.
Last season he suited up 32 times for the Manitoba Moose with a 11-19-1 record, 3.55 GAA and 0.872 save percentage.
The prior 2022-23 season he was with the Abbotsford Canucks, playing in nine games with a 6-3 record, 3.39 GAA and 0.888 save percentage while suiting up 20 times for the NHL parent Vancouver Canucks with a respectable 10-6-2 record, 3.28 GAA and 0.882 save percentage.
Entering Saturday’s game at Pechanga Arena, Delia, 30, had appeared 10 games this season for the Condors with a 3-5-2 record, 2.98 GAA and 0.900 save percentage.
He has spent the majority of his career (2017-22) between the AHL Rockford IceHogs and NHL Chicago Blackhawks (22 games).
His counterpart in the Gulls net, Buteyets, 22, was making his AHL debut after a recall from the ECHL Tulsa Oilers. Buteyets was in the San Diego net for the preseason exhibition game against the Ontario Reign.
In 15 games with Tulsa, he had posted an 8-6-1 record with a 3.02 GAA and 0.895 save percentage.
The Condors welcomed the Russian native into the AHL with a goal at the 2:22 mark as Connor Carrick gave Bakersfield a 1-0 lead off passes from Matvey Petrov and Lane Pederson. The goal was Carrick’s fourth of the season while Pederson picked up his seventh assist and Petrov his fifth helper.
The Condors got off to an early 7-3 shot advantage courtesy of a power play opportunity at 8:20 when San Diego’s Heatherington was charged with an interference penalty.
Regenda went to the box for the Gulls at 12:45 to provide the Condors with another power play opportunity. It didn’t take long for the Central Valley visitors to double their lead as Pederson registered his third goal of the season at 13:24, assisted by Matthew Savoie and Drake Caggiula. The assist was the 11th of the season for Savoie and the ninth for Caggiula.
The hosts got a favorable call at 16:31 when Ronnie Attard was charged with hooking. However, the Gulls were unable to score with the man-advantage.
The Condors nearly made it 3-0 with 9.9 seconds to play in the opening period as the Bakersfield shooter slid a shot into the San Diego netminder’s pads.
Bakersfield finished with a 9-4 edge in shots through the opening 20 minutes.
Buteyets earned the start after Clang received a call-up to the NHL parent Anaheim Ducks after John Gibson was day-to-day with illness. With Dansk out with illness, the Gulls completed their goaltending duo for Saturday’s game with goaltender coach Jeff Glass, who signed a PTO to become eligible to suit up.
The second period was a complete switch as the Gulls reeled off three unanswered goals to chase Delia from between the pipes.
The hosts out-shot the visitors 12-9 while racking up a 3-0 edge in scoring. Jan Mysak started the San Diego goal rampage with his fifth goal at 42 seconds to make the score 2-1 in favor of Bakersfield. Nathan Gaucher scored his second goal of the season at 5:22 to tie the game, 2-2, before Sam Colangelo netted his 11th goal of the season at 9:57 to give the Gulls their first lead of the game.
Colangelo and Pastujov picked up assists on the first San Diego goal while Judd Caulfield and Sidorov had the assists on the second Gulls goal. Mysak and Pastujov assisted on Colangelo’s 3-2 tally.
Delia was chased from the game after 29:47 of ice time, making eight saves on 11 shots. Olivier Rodrigue took his place in the crease, stopping all five shots he faced to end the period.
Buteyets stopped 16 of the 18 shots he faced through two periods to jump in line to snatch a victory.
In the last game of the 2024 calendar season for the Gulls, they were unable to grant Buteyets’ holiday wish, however., to the disappointment of the 6,029 on hand in Pechanga Arena.
Two power play goals by the Condors completely changed the course of the game. Caggiula scored a man-up goal at 6:20, assisted by Seth Griffith and Cam Dineen. The assist was Griffith’s 13th this season. He added his ninth goal of the season at 12:27, assisted by Dineen and Matthew Savoire to push Bakersfield into a 4-3 advantage.
The assist was Savoie’s 12th of the season and 11th for Dineen.
Savoie wasn’t finished on the scoresheet after supplying the primary assist on Pederson’s fourth goal of the season at 14:46 on a breakaway. Former Gull Jacob Perreault recorded the secondary assist, his fifth this season.
Buteyetes spent 2:06 out of the net but the hosts could not capitalize while being held to just two shots in the final period. The Condors out-shot the Gulls 8-2 in soaring to a 3-0 edge in goals scored. For the game Bakersfield out-shot San Diego 26-18.
Pederson earned first star honors with two goals and one assist while Colangelo was voted the game’s No. 2 star with one goal and one assist, followed by Mysak (one goal, one assist) as the third star. Rodrigue stopped all seven shots he faced in relief to record the goaltender victory.
Buteyets made 21 saves on 26 shots in his AHL debut before being returned to Tulsa upon Clang’s return.
Bakersfield scored three power play goals in scratching out the division win.
“We took some penalties and we had some guys that were tired on a back-to-back that played a lot of special teams in the last two games,” San Diego assistant coach Kris Sparre said. “We find ourselves back against the wall with a hot power play that’s already got two in the game. They score a goal, they get back into it. And we just got to be a little bit more disciplined in those critical moments.”
Colangelo, a second-round draft pick (36th overall) by the Ducks in 2020, was scoreless in eight games on his recent NHL call-up.
He admitted the first period was a wake-up call for his team. “We just didn’t show up ready to play.,” Colangelo said. It was pretty evident. They had the puck in our zone, I’d say probably 90 percent of the period. So, it was a pretty big eye-opener. We didn’t come ready to play mentally and were not playing good. I think it’s mostly between the ears. We just needed to get back to our game.
“I think it changed the flow of the game even in the third I thought we had chances. But when you go down like that in the first period and you start a game like that, it makes it pretty impossible to win. We gave ourselves a chance in the second, and then in the third, just kind of got capitalized on, on the chances they got. And the result is evident of that.
“We want to win at home, so that’s the first thing. Just learn from our mistakes. There’s a long way to go, but we’ve been saying this for a while now, and it’s, it’s tough, it’s frustrating. We want to win. I don’t think it’s because of a lack of effort. I think we just need to be ready to play when the puck drops, and we won’t find ourselves in (situations) like that. And it’s not the first time that we’ve gone down to that team. So, it’s us. It’s not that they’re doing anything like crazy to dominate the game. It’s just not getting pucks out of our zone and kind of shooting ourselves in the foot. So, like I said, we just, we got to learn from it. And I know there’s a lot of season left, but if we don’t start turning it around now, it’s going to be too late.”
Buteyets’ effort wasn’t questioned. “He was solid,” Sparre said. “The puck’s going towards the net, he never felt like he wasn’t going to stop it. He was square, made a lot of great saves tonight. Gave us a chance to win the game and feel for him. I wish we would have got it for him.”
The Gulls have eight home games in January starting Wednesday. Other home ice contests are Jan. 8 (Iowa Wild), Jan. 10-11 (Tucson), Jan. 15 (Iowa), Jan. 18 (Calgary) and Jan. 29 and Jan. 31 (Toronto Marlies).
