Coachella Valley Edges San Diego, 6-5
AHL San Diego Gulls

Coachella Valley Edges San Diego, 6-5

March 1, 2025 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls' win streak comes to an end at seven games after falling 6-5 to the Coachella Valley Firebirds tonight at home from Pechanga Arena San Diego.

Nikita Nesterenko registered two goals and two assists tonight to bring his season total to 11-16' points. Four points match Nesterenko's career high for a game which he achieved in the 2023-24 campaign. It's his seventh multi-point performance of the year and second in his last three games.

Sasha Pastujov tallied a goal and two assists in the first period tonight. It's the fifth time he's logged at least three points in a game this season and second time over his current three-game point streak (3-5=8). Pastujov's 17-25=42 points lead all Gulls Skaters.

Jan Mysak opened the scoring for San Diego with his 13th goal of the campaign. Mysak has points in back-to-back games.

Ryan Carpenter netted his 15th goal of the year and added his 23rd assist. The Gulls' captain has points in 10 of his last 11 contests (5-11=16).

Roland McKeown collected his 16th assist of the year. McKeown's 10-16& points is a new single season career high for the San Diego blueliner.

Tristan Luneau registered his team-leading 32nd assist of the season tonight. Luneau's eight-game assist streak is the longest by any Gulls skater in team history. The San Diego blueliner's 32 assists lead all AHL rookies and is good for second most among league defensemen. His 6-32=38 points rank first among league rookie blueliners and T-2 for AHL defensemen.

Yegor Sidorov tallied his 13th assist of the season.

Ville Husso stopped 19-of-25 shots tonight.

The Gulls close out February with an 8-2-1 record. They'll continue their push for the playoffs tomorrow night as they open March against the Bakersfield Condors at 6 p.m. from Pechanga Arena San Diego.

POSTGAME QUOTES ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ SAN DIEGO GULLS ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ Assistant coach Kris Sparre ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚

On how the team responded in the third

We didn't quit. 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.

On the special teams tonight

Four goals given up on the penalty kill. It's the difference in the game. 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.

On how the team will build off of this

Well, I think short memory, we have a quick turnaround tomorrow and just kind of zoom out for a second and look at the body of work that we've done in the last month. We've closed the gap. We were 14 points out originally, and we've cut that in half. If we just keep chipping away at it, we're going to like where we sit come April.

On what he wants to see tomorrow

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. It'd be an effort where you want to see, you want to get results, and it would be results driven, and have the guys show up tomorrow, you just got to kind of dig really deep. It's not easy on the quick turnarounds but we have a group in there that knows how to do it.

Left winger Nikita Nesterenko

On what he liked from the group tonight

We showed it throughout the season. We've had multiple comebacks. Matt emphasized it in the room. We all know that we've had good comebacks in the past, so it gave us some belief going into that third. We just played with desperation. Everyone was on their toes, just battling for the guy next to him. It was fun. If we can play like that tomorrow for 60, that'll be it.

On Coachella's special teams play

They're running a spread, I think. Just got a little too spread out. They found some seams. Just go back to the chalkboard, look at it, just kind of tightening it up, not letting those seams through. Flip your sticks to the inside, just little things like that. It let us down today. But you know, we're going to look at some video. We'll be way better at it tomorrow.

On how they move forward

We know that every game counts from now on, so it's a playoff push right when we got back from All-Star break. It's a loss, but we know we've been on a good run here. That's a great team. So just that gives us some belief that that third period that we played well and hopefully we can get a win against Bakersfield, and then we can just keep it rolling.

On the line of him, Jan Mysak and Sasha Pastujov

It's been a lot of fun playing with Sasha and Jan. It's been a couple of games now, but those guys are great. They have great IQ, so it's just trying to find open space for them. It's tough when you see a guy like Sasha go down, and he's having an incredible run here a couple months now, he's been playing great, so I feel for him, but hopefully he's back soon. Excited to keep playing with him.

Check out the San Diego Gulls Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from March 1, 2025


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central