GULLS SEE SEVEN-GAME WIN STREAK END AS PLAYOFF PUSH CONTINUES
It was a season that would try the patience of any coach, much less a new helmsman stepping into a program playing its first season in one of the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s top tier national leagues.
The San Diego State University men’s ice hockey team thus carried a 4-23-0-1 overall record with 22 consecutive losses to Western Collegiate Hockey League opponents into its season-ending non-conference game against crosstown rival UC San Diego on Feb. 22 at the Kroc Center Ice Arena.
Much to the chagrin of SDSU head coach Dean Wilson, the Aztecs trailed the Tritons, 1-0, at the end of the first period despite owning a 23-6 advantage in shots. The game was tied, 1-1, through two periods with SDSU holding a 44-12 edge in shots.
But the floodgates finally opened in the third period as SDSU piled up a decisive 5-1 scoring run to emerge with a much-needed 6-2 win on Senior Night.
“What kind of a season it’s been!” is how Wilson could only describe it.
The Aztecs rounded out their third season at the ACHA Division 1 level. The program’s first foray into the division resulted in a 1-20-1 record followed by a more encouraging sophomore season at 8-14-1.
But a coaching change ushered in SDSU’s junior campaign that saw seven seniors on the ice, six of whom were on the ice against the Tritons.
The WCHL featured seven ranked top 25 teams. The Aztecs played six of them. Some of the results were not viewer friendly, including 19-1 and 16-2 loses to UNLV, 15-0 and 8-0 to the University of Utah, 11-0 to Grand Canyon University and 9-2 to Arizona State.
SDSU was shut out six times and out-scored 200-65 (-135 goal-differential).
But Aztec skaters proved they were in it for the long haul.
“It’s gone well considering our record,” Wilson continued. “We’ve adapted to the level of play. Those teams are junior and senior heavy. There’s a lot of difference between and 23- to 24- year-old and an 18-to 20-year-old. They’ve already had a lot of development, some have played junior hockey, whereas our team is still developing 18- to 20-year-olds.
“The injury list has been awful this year. The list goes on. For some reason the second period is our worst period. The bottom line is that we haven’t been able to close out games.
We are in a tough conference,” Wilson underscored. “Basically, everyone we play is in the top 20 rankings. It can’t get any tougher.
“(WCHL) teams are really deep. It’s hard to match up with those conference teams that re three- to four-lines deep. But the kids battle every game. We compete to the buzzer and the end of the third period. I’m proud of them, the way they’ve competed with the record we have. We’ve played above my expectations.”
Prior to the Feb. 22 season finale, the Aztecs honored their six seniors in a pre-game ceremony: forwards Marcus Kim, Luke Desmarais, Toby Petrus, Sean Devaney and Gavin O’Bryan and forward/defenseman Lucas Bellig.
Bellig (five goals, eight assists) and Kim (one goal, 12 assists) ranked in a tie for third in team scoring with 13 points, followed by Desmarais with 12 points (five goals, seven assists) and Devaney with eight points (one goal, seven assists). Four of the SDSU seniors helped fill out the team’s top seven point-getters.
O’Bryan logged five points (two goals, three assists) in 22 games while Petrus collected three points (one goal, two assists) in 14 game appearances.
Besides tackling a tough conference, the Aztecs did so with a young roster.
The team’s 25-man active roster on Sept. 18 listed 16 sophomores and three juniors on the roster.
Top contributors among the underclassmen have been forwards Mason Brown, Max Kathol, Brandon Grant and Nick Grigoropoulos, forward/defensemen Cameron Ferraz and Zach Stroozas, defensemen Connor Hennigan and Ryan Elleraas and goaltender Liam Dee.
Ferraz (nine goals, 10 assists) and Brown (eight goals, nine assists) keyed the Aztecs throughout the season as the team’s top two scoring leaders. Grant (six goals, three assists) ranked sixth in team scoring with nine points while Kathol accumulated seven points (two goals, seven assists).
Stroozas followed with six points (two goals, four assists) while Grigoropoulos logged four points. Hennigan contributed five assists on defense while Elleraas had two points (one goal, one assist). Dee appeared in 20 games with a 2-13-0 record, 6.82 goals-agaianst average and 0.870 save percentage.
“Some of these guys now have the experience to fill the shoes of the guys who are leaving,” the SDSU coach said. “Hopefully, we can get some of these recruits to be accepted to the school.”
Wilson said 43 players turned out for tryouts this past season, including five goaltenders, and 30 overall made the cut.
Wilson has already started to pencil in next season’s schedule. Included are four games against Oregon as well as conference series with Arizona, Colorado, ASU, UNLV, GCU, Utah, Colorado State and Oklahoma.
Playing with the big boys. Five of those team qualified for this year’s M1 national championship tournament.
“We’re pretty much playing a top 25-type program in each of our conference games and it’s not easy when you’re up against guys who are 23 and 24 years old who have incoming experience from junior leagues and we’re still in the process of developing 18- to 20-year-olds,” Wilson said. “But even with our record, we showed growth.
“We were bitten by the injury bug that hampered us. Our biggest problem was that we just couldn’t close out games, that’s the bottom line.”
The season finale against UCSD spoke to that.
Peter Dukakis gave the Tritons (6-16) a 1-0 lead with 26 seconds to play in the opening period. The Aztecs finally tied it, 1-1, with 2:22 left on the clock in the middle period on a goal by Nicolas Grigoropoulos. Benjamin Hollingsworth and Marcus Kim drew assists.
UC San Diego scored again in the third period but SDSU was able to offset that with five tallies of its own.
Six players finished with two points: Lucas Bellig, Mason Brown, Cameron Ferraz and Toby Petrus each with a goal and assist and Luke Desmarais and Kim each with two assists. All three goaltenders each played one period: Brody Hsaio (13 saves on 14 shots), Liam Dee (six saves on six shots) and Nicolas Heinzle (five saves on six shots).
SDSU out shot UCSD 66-26. Isaac Laddon made 60 saves for the Tritons.
The Aztecs finished 5-23-0-1.
Scoring Leaders
Cameron Ferraz: 9 goals, 10 assists – 19 points
Mason Brown: 8 goals, 9 assists – 17 points
Lucas Bellig: 5 goals, 8 assists – 13 points
Marcus Kim: 1 goal, 12 assists – 13 points
Luke Desmarais: 5 goals, 7 assists – 12 points
Brandon Grant: 6 goals, 3 assists – 9 points
Sean Devaney: 1 goals, 7 assists – 8 points
Max Kathol: 5 goals, 2 assists – 7 points
Kolby Hennessy: 4 goals, 3 assists — 7 points
Patrick Morris: 2 goals, 4 assists — 6 points
Zach Stroozas: 2 goals, 4 assists — 6 points
Drew Gunderson: 3 goals, 2 assists — 5 points
Patrick Fast: 2 goals, 3 assists — 5 points
Gavin O’Bryan: 2 goals, 3 assists — 5 points
Connor Hennigan: 0 goals, 5 assists — 5 points
Nicolas Grigoropoulos: 2 goals, 2 assists — 4 points
|Sean Yeo: 2 goals, 2 assists — 4 points
Toby Petrus: 1 goal, 2 assists — 3 points
Nolan Conrad: 1 goal, 2 assists — 3 points
Ryan Elleraas: 1 goal, 1 assist — 2 points
Ayden Moretti: 1 goal, 1 assist — 2 points
Benjamin Hollingsworth: 0 goals, 2 assists — 2 points
Aiden Barbee: 1 goal, 0 assists — 1 point
Braden Mayer: 1 goal, 0 assisgts — 1 point
Connor Macaulay: 0 goals, 1 assist — 1 point
Jake Abenojar: 0 goals, 1 assist — 1 point
Blake Branon: 0 goals, 0 assists — 0 points
Cameron Henderson: 0 goals, 0 assists — 0 points
Nicholas Heinzle: 0 goals, 0 assists — 0 points
Hudson Phillips: 0 goals, 0 assists — 0 points
Kellan Bartlett: 0 goals, 0 assists — 0 points
Brody Hsiao: 0 goals, 0 assists — 0 points
Liam Dee: 0 goals, 0 assists — 0 points
Goaltending:
Brody Hsiao: 2-7-1, 6.40 GAA, 0.884 save percentage
Liam Dee: 2-13-0, 6.82 GAA, 0.870 save percentage
Nicholas Heinzle: 1-3-0, 7.65 GAA, 0.833 save percentage
SDSU SEASON SCHEDULE
September
14: SDSU 6, Loyola Marymount University 1
21: SDSU 6, CSU-Northridge 4
26: University of Arizona 9, SDSU 3
27: University of Arizona 5, SDSU 2
October
4: University of Utah 15, SDSU 0
5: University of Utah 4, SDSU 0
11: Grand Canyon University 8, SDSU 3
12: Grand Canyon University 11, SDSI 0
18: SDSU Western Michigan University 4
19: SDSU 4, Western Michigan University 3
25: Colorado State 6, SDSU 4
26: Colorado State 5, SDSU 1
November
1: Canisius University 4, SDSU 3 (shootout)
2: Canisius University 6, SDSU 4
15: Arizona State 2, SDSU 1
16: Arizona State 9 SDSU 2
22: Grand Canyon University 5, SDSU 2
23: Grand Canyon University 5, SDSU 1
December
6: University of Utah 8, SDSU 0
7: University of Utah 5, SDSU 2
January
17: University of Oklahoma 4, SDSU 1
18: University of Oklahoma 6, SDSU 1
23: Nevada-Las Vegas 16, SDSU 2
24: Nevada-Las Vegas 6, SDSU 0
February
7: University of Arizona 7, SDSI 0
8: University of Arizona 9, SDSU 3
14: Nevada-Las Vegas 19, SDSU 1
15: Nevada-Las Vegas 12, SDSU 1
22: SDSU 6, UCSan Diego 2
WCHL Standings
(W-L-OTL-T-SOW-SOL, Points)
Nevada-Las Vegas 26-4-2-0-1-1, 55 points
Utah 21-6-0-0-2-1, 43 points
Oklahoma 19-8-2-0-0-1, 41 points
Colorado 18-16-1-0-2-1, 38 points
Arizona 16-12-1-0-3-0, 33 points
Grand Canyon 15-14-0-0-0-2, 32 points
Colorado State 14-15-2-0-2-0, 30 points
Arizona State 13-15-1-0-0-2, 29 points
Missouri State 13-17-2-0-0-0, 28 points
Central Oklahoma 11-16-1-0-0-2, 25 points
SDSU 5-23-0-0-0-1, 11 points
National Rankings
- Minot State 36-2-3
- Nevada-Las Vegas 25-1-3
- Ohio 18-4-4
- Liberty 21-5-5
- Jamestown 23-7-2
- Adrian 24-3-2
- Niagara 21-5-3
- Utah 21-6-1
- Drury 26-2-0
- Maryville 19-9-2
- Calvin 23-5-0
- Grand Canyon University 15-12-2
- Indiana Tech 28-4-0
- University of Mary 21-13-1
- University of Arizona 16-12-1
- Midland 18-17-2
- Purdue Northwest 14-10-2
- University of Oklahoma
- University of Pittsburgh
- Arizona State University
- Oswego State 20-7-4
- Stony Brook 13-11-6
- Delaware 20-12-3
- University of Colorado 18-15-2
- Grand Valley State 15-9-1
Nationals Preview
The WCHL has five qualifiers to this year’s ACHA Division 1 national championship tournament March 13-25 in St. Louis: University of Nevada-Las Vegas, University of Utah, Grand Canyon University, University of Arizona and University of Oklahoma.
SDSU finished 54th in the rankings among the 73 Division I teams in 2024-25.
Minot State ended regular season play with the No. 1 ranking among ACHA Men’s Division 1 teams at 36-2-3. The Beavers remained in the top spot for the seventh consecutive week after winning the Midwest College Hockey Playoff Championship in Bloomington, Ill.
This year’s national championship tournament includes 24 teams. Five conference champions are included with automatic bids. Besides Minot State, other conference champions include John Carroll University (College Mid-America, Northwood University (Great Lakes Collegiate Hockey League), Oswego State University (Northeast Collegiate Hockey League) and Indiana Tech (Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference).
Additionally, West Chester University (Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association), University of Delaware (Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League and Nevada-Las Vegas (WCHL) clinched automatic bids as regular season champions of their conferences.
Minot State, which defeated No. 5 Jamestown, 2-1, in overtime to win the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Playoff Championship, enters the 2025 national tournament as the No. 1 seed for the second year in a row and will be looking to record its fourth national title. Joey Moffatt earned the playoff conference tournament Most Valuable Player award after scoring the overtime goal at thre 1:13 mark against the Jimmies. Jamestown had lad, 1-0, until defenseman Brayden Pawluk tied the game with 2:59 left in regulation.
UNLV enters the 2025 tournament as the No. 2 seed after finishing as the 2024 nationals runner-up.
A total of 19 teams in the final regular season ranking will return after participating in the 2024 national championship tournament. Adrian College, last year’s national champion, is seeded No. 6 this year.
Utah is seeded No. 8 while Grand Canyon University is seeded No. 12.
No. 18 Oklahoma is making its first appearance in the tournament since 2019. No. 9 Drury University and No. 23 Northwood University are both making their first overall appearance.
Over the past 21 seasons, 12 different schools have won Division 1 national championship titles.
AHL REPORT
Pacific Division standings tightening up at both ends
The American Hockey League’s Pacific Division standings are tightening up at both ends as the season heads into its stretch drive in advance of the Calder Cup playoffs. Entering the final weekend in Feruary, four teams were bunched near the top, separated by a scant two standings points. Meanwhile, four teams wre separated by six points in the battle for the division’s seventh and final playoff berth.
It’s impossible to predict a regular season champion or which team will claim the final playoff spot in what is shaping up as an exciting dash to postseason play.
As of Friday, Feb. 28, the Ontario Reign had supplanted the Calgary Wranglers as the division leader with a 31-15-2-1 record and 55 points, immediately ahead of the Wranglers with a 29-17-4-2 record and 64 points and the Coachella Valley Firebirds with a 29-18-1-5 record, also with 64 points. The Colorado Eagles sat in fourth place in the division standings with a 28-15-5-2 record and 63 points.
The Abbotsford Canucks (27-21-2-1) and San Jose Barracuda (26-20-2-3) sat in fifth and sixth place with 57 points apiece – comfortably in playoff position.
Eight teams sported winning records heading into the final playing date in February. The Tucson Roadrunners held down the last playoff berth in seventh place with a 24-22-2-2 record and 52 points, immediately followed by the Bakersfield Condors in eighth place with a 21-19-6-3 record and 51 points.
Once thought out of the playoff mix, the San Diego Gulls and Henderson Silver Kights have fought back with stellar second-half runs to put their names in the hat. The Gulls(290-24-5-2, 47 points) entered Friday’s game against visiting Coachella Valley with a seven-game winning streak and league-best 8-1-1 showing in its past 10 games, closing what was once a 14-point deficit from seventh place to just five points.
At 22-29-2, Henderson was one point arrears of the Gulls and six points below the playoff cut. The Silver Knights have also logged eight wins in their last 10 games.
Hot on ice
Newly acquired goaltender Ville Husso made his second consecutive start in the San Diego net, fresh off a 34-save 4-0 shutout of the Wranglers on Wednesday (Feb. 26).
But Coachella Valley was undaunted as the visitors took a 1-0 lead at 5:02 on a goal by Jani Nyman, his 24th, assisted by Daniel Sprong (his 13th) and Cale Fleury (his 13th).
The Gulls went on the power play at 9:17 for an interference call but the shift ended with a fight between San Diego’s Nathan Gaucho and Coachella’s Jacob Melanson.
The hosts did equalize the score, 1-1, on a long shot by Jan Mysak from the dasher boards. Sasha Pastujov and Nikita Nesterenko assisted the goal at 13:44.
But the visitors made sure the game didn’t stay tied long as Tucker Robertson notched his fourth goal os the season at 14:38. Assists went to Ty Nelson (his `19th) and Ryan Winterton (his 16th).
2-1 Firebirds.
The hosts had an answer for that at 16:35 with captain Ryan Carpenter’s 15th goal of the season, assisted by Pastujov (his 25th) and Tristan Luneau (his 32nd).
The Gulls scored again nine seconds later off the ensuing faceoff as Pastujov netted his 17th goal of the season from Nesterenko and Roland McKeown. It was Pastujov’s 42nd point of the season.
3-2 San Diego.
The first period ended with the Gulls owning a 15-10 shot advantage that was reflected on the scoreboard.
The Firebirds had a chance to go on the power play at 5:16 of the second period on a double minor charged to San Diego’s Justin Bailey high sticking. The visitors scored on the first penalty at 7:16 to tie the game 3-3. Sprong got the goal, his eighth, assisted by Fleury (his 14th) and Eduard Sale (his 14th).
Coachella Valley scored on the second penalty as well, at 8:50 by John Hayden (his 10th), to take a 4-2 lead on the scoreboard. Sprong and Fleury supplied the assists.
The Firebrids scored a third consecutive power play goal at 10:34 to zip in front 5-3 as Logan Morrison netted his 12th goal of the season. Assists went to Nyman and former Gull Nikolas Brouillard.
The Gulls had a chance to bounce back in the game with two consecutive power play opportunities, but the visitors shut both down.
Shots to end the second period stood at 20-18 in favor of the Gulls after the Firebirds fired off an 8-5 edge in the period.
Coachella Valley scored its fourth power play goal of the game at 3:14 by Nyman, his second of the game and 25th of the season, assisted by Morrison a(his 21st) and Brandon Brio (his 21st). The Firebirds extended their lead to 6-3 with their fourth unanswered goal in the game.
The Gulls remained scoreless on three power play chances.
Coachella Valley entered the game 17 standings points ahead of the Gulls and played like it in their second and third period comeback.
The hosts finally snapped the Firebirds’ goal rush at1 2:02 as Nesterenko collected his 10th goal of the season, unassisted The Gulls trimmed the Coachella Valley lead to 6-4 with two goals to make up over the balance of regulation to keep their points streak alive.
Husso went to the bench for the extra attacker with 3:59 to play. The Gulls got one back at 17:14 as Nesterenko slammed the puck inside the near post to make it a 6-5 game. Carpenter and Yegor Sidorov picked up the assists.
Husso went back into the San Diego net but came out again with 1:20 to play in a last ditch bid to send the game into overtime.
The Firebirds took one swipe at the empty net but the puck slid wide with 1:00 remaining. A San Diego player was leveled along the blue line but there was no call with 30 seconds left.
The game, seen by 9,123 in attendance, ended with the puck batted along the boards.
The Gulls, who came up one game short of tying the club record for consecutive wins (eight games), finished with a 29-25 edge in shots. Sprong earned thirds star while Neseternko grabbed second star billing with two goals and two assists. Nyman (two goals, one assist) was the game’s first star.
Husso made stops of 19 of 25 shots while winning goaltender Philipp Grubauer had 24 stops on 29 shots.
“We didn’t quit,” Gulls assistant coach Kris Sparre said. “We know that our group never does, so it was nice to see that once again. We fought. I thought, you know, we worked right to the bitter end. I thought our guys played a pretty desperate game. When you’re down bodies, like we were, it can be challenging.
“Four goals given up on the penalty kill. It’s the difference in the game,” Sparre continued. “That’s the game right there, five on five. We played them heads up. I thought we played a very well-rounded game. Couldn’t get a penalty kill. And there’s a lot of great opportunities we gave them, and they capitalized.
“We feel a little bit snake bitten tonight, with all that, with the amount of work that we put into the game, and how hard the guys really competed tonight.”
Notes
The Gulls weren’t helped on the out-of-town scoreboard as Tucson defeated visiting Rockford 5-1 to move seven standings points in front of San Diego. The Roadrunners host the IceHogs on Saturday while the Gulls host Bakersfield in an equally critical match-up.
Ontario defeated Abbotsford, 3-2, to move back into sole possession of first place by one point over Ontario. The Firebirds moved into a tie for second place with the Reign, one point behind the Wranglers.
Former Gulls Jordan Samuels-Thomas served as one of the game officials, wearing No 42.
Emo Night attracted a youthful crowd with singalongs abounding.
Player of the Month
Carpenter earned honors as the AHL Player of the Month for February after logging a league co-leading 16 points (six goals, 10 points) alongside teammate Tristan Luneau (one goal, 15 assists) in the month. Carpenter recorded a career-best nine-game point streak with 14 points (five goals, nine assists) over that stretch and netted points in 10 of the February contests. The Oviedo, Fla. native recorded five multiple point games in the month.
Carpenter became the second player in team history to win back-to-back monthy awards after Pastujov won the league’s month award for January.
The Magnificent Seven
Feb. 12: Gulls 4, Abbotsford 1
Feb. 15: Gulls 5, Coachella Valley 3
Feb. 16: Gulls 4, San Jose 2
Feb. 19: Gulls 5, Abbotsford 3
Feb. 21: Gulls 4, Bakersfield 1
Feb. 22: Gulls 5, Bakersfield 4 (OT)
Feb. 26: Gulls 4, Calgary 0
