Gulls Down Calgary for Third Win in a Row
Published on March 23, 2026 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release
The San Diego Gulls recorded their third straight win with a 5-4 victory over the Calgary Wranglers Sunday evening at Pechanga Arena. The Gulls have now won four of their last five contests and stand with a 29-21-8-4 record.
Nathan Gaucher recorded the 13th hat trick in Gulls AHL history, scoring three times for his first career three-goal game. It marks the first Gulls hat trick at home since the 2023-24 season (Glenn Gawdin, March 24, 2024). He sets a new AHL career high in goals with 12 this season, surpassing his previous high of 10 set in 2024-25. Gaucher has posted 4-2=6 points in his last four games, including back-to-back multi-point efforts (3-2=5).
Ryan Carpenter scored 16th goal of the season. Carpenter now has 16-22=38 points on the season, ranking third among Gulls skaters.
Cal Burke netted his third goal of the season, his first on the power play, giving him goals in back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Tristan Luneau picked up his 25th and 26th assists of the season, giving him points in 10 of his last 11 games (5-12=17). He continues to lead all AHL defensemen in points in the month of March with 5-10=15 points, which ranks fourth among all AHL skaters in that span.
Sasha Pastujov earned two assists to stretch his point streak to four games (2-4=6). Pastujov has tallied 4-7=11 points in his last 10 games. He continues to lead Gulls skaters in points (16-32=48) and points-per-game (0.77).
Justin Bailey skated in his 500th career AHL game and moved his point streak to four games with 16th assist of the season. He has posted 1-3=4 points in that span. Bailey's 16 assists are the most he's had in a season since 2019-20, when he posted 19.
Tyson Hinds collected an assist for the second straight game, his 13th of the campaign, in his 200th career AHL game. He has tallied helpers in four of his last six games (0-4=4).
Stian Solberg stretched his point streak to three games with an assist, his eighth of the season. He has 1-2=3 points in that span.
Nikita Nesterenko, Nikolas Brouillard and Roland McKeown each tacked on an assist.
Calle Clang earned his 15th win of the season, stopping 19 shots.
The Gulls head to Abbotsford next, where they will take on the Canucks in back-to-back contests starting Saturday night (7 p.m. PDT).
POSTGAME QUOTES
SAN DIEGO GULLS
Center Nathan Gaucher
On his first career AHL hat trick
Our line has been playing really well. There are games where we get rewarded offensively and tonight's one of those. We put the hard work in every day, and one of those games will go in for us. So, it's good one of those days was today.
On what went into getting the win
There were too many penalties today for sure. You get off your momentum a bit, and then you're up 4-0 and kind of let down a little bit, that was a big mistake we made. We should have just kept playing the way we know how to play, and we showed that. We showed that in the third and it worked out for us.
On what the team is focusing on in the last 10 games
Just focusing on our game, whoever we play, wherever we play. We just want to play the same way. Consistency is the big thing for us. Like you said, we've got to play 60 minutes if we want to win a hockey game so that's a big focus for us down the stretch.
Head coach Matt McIlvane
On tonight's game
Loved our first period. It was fun to watch the puck move around like that and see it go in. Until 5:30 left in the in the second, I loved our second. There was a turning point where it felt like they might have caught a little bit of momentum and then we got off track for maybe two minutes. Then we collected ourselves between periods and came out with a really poised third period and I don't think we gave them too much. So, upset that we got off track for a moment, but the important part is we got back on and got the two points.
On Nathan Gaucher recording his first AHL career hat trick
Nate has been gaining confidence in himself and in his role throughout this season. It's been a slow build, but it felt like today might be an exclamation point as far as how he's developed this year. That line has been tremendous. It's Nathan, Judd [Caulfield] and whomever they're playing with is usually having a great night. It's great for Nathan to get that reward.
On the team's resiliency
I think the big thing in the third period is we just got back on track mentally. We lost focus for a moment and then you get to see how good Calgary is. We give them those team plays and back post stuff, and they can capitalize. But if we play the way we know how, we'll be just fine.
On the upcoming schedule
I think there's plenty from this game to keep and build on. I liked a lot of our offensive zone play. I thought we hunted pucks well and we played most of the game above them. We're continuing to build our game to put an exclamation point on the season. We know we've got a worthy opponent, but we'll use this week to practice and prepare.
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