Gulls Down IceHogs, 6-4
Published on March 8, 2026 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release
The San Diego Gulls defeated the Rockford IceHogs 6-4 tonight at Pechanga Arena San Diego, snapping a three-game skid. San Diego now sits with a 25-18-8-4 record, keeping them in sixth place in the Pacific Division.
Ryan Carpenter netted his 100th and 101st career AHL goals (101-162&3), both on the power play. Carpenter now has 14 goals and five PPG this season. Carpenter also picked up an assist to give him a season-high 2-1=3 points.
Stian Solberg scored his ninth goal of the season, his second on the power play. Solberg ranks tied for second among AHL rookie defensemen in goals and tied for ninth among all AHL blueliners.
Nikita Nesterenko scored the first shorthanded goal of his AHL career, his third goal overall this season. San Diego now has nine shorthanded tallies as a team on the season, one shy of the AHL lead.
Nikolas Brouillard scored his fourth goal of the season, his 26th as a Gull, giving him the all-time team lead for goals by a defenseman surpassing Brandon Montour (26).
Coulson Pitre netted his second goal of the season.
Tristan Luneau moved his point streak to four games with two assists, giving him 1-5=6 points in that span. He now has 5-19=24 points this season, including 1-10=11 points in his last 13 games.
Sam Colangelo recorded two assists to give him points in back-to-back contests (1-2=3). He has tallied 9-13=22 points this season.
Roland McKeown tallied his 15th and 16th assists of the season (0-2=2), giving him 5-16=21 points on the campaign.
Judd Caulfield earned his 17th and 18th assists of the campaign, establishing a new AHL career high in helpers.
Nathan Gaucher picked up his 12th assist of the season, giving him 4-8=12 points in his last 14 games and 8-12 overall.
Cal Burke earned an assist for the second straight night, his seventh of the season.
Calle Clang moved his record to 14-4-6, stopping 24 shots.
The Gulls head to San Jose for a midweek matchup with the Barracuda on Wednesday night at Tech CU Arena (7 p.m. PDT).
POSTGAME QUOTES
SAN DIEGO GULLS
Center Ryan Carpenter
On the win tonight
We just wanted to build. We thought we did a lot of good. Thought they really did capitalize on the few odd man's we gave them yesterday. You give them credit, they have a lot of skill, and they made some great plays and so we wanted to come down tonight. Almost felt like we gave them a little bit more than we did the night before. But, going into the third with a lead, and then Nathan [Gaucher] getting through, that line I thought they were amazing for us tonight, and they had the hard matchup with the Seney line, and I thought they just drove to play five-on-five for us. It was a big night with special teams. We just found a way to win. Sometimes you need that when you're kind of slumping a little bit, struggling to find confidence. Hopefully with the day off tomorrow, a couple practice days before San Jose, we can start building off of this.
On an early 5-on-3 kill and going 3-for-4 on the powerplay
I think usually when a 5-on-3 goes that long, your goal is to make some good saves. I thought [Calle] Clang was real solid, defense did a good job of clearing out rebounds, and they really didn't have a ton of second looks. So, you're going to give up shots occasionally on the five-on-three that long. That goal when [Nikita] Nesterenko came out of the box, that's a huge momentum goal for us. Even though they tied it up, we were able to roll on the power play. We've had the same units now for a little bit, and so there's some chemistry developing there, and maybe some reads that maybe early on we weren't able to make. And so, we stepped up and found a way to win. I'm sure we wanted to be better 5-on-5 and not give up as much, maybe find ways to create more. But at this point, we're going to take the win.
On closing the game in the third period
We talked about our F3, our third forward in the play, staying above and not giving up three on twos, two on ones, just being patient and knowing that we would get chances off of defending well. We didn't do that the whole 60, but I thought we locked it down pretty good and again, Clanger was great.
On the upcoming game against San Jose
We'll get a couple practice days, couple good workouts at home, couple good sleeps in our own beds, and then it's a shorter flight up to San Jose. So, we got to remember what happened a week ago. Even though it was a close game, felt like they really took it to us, and I'm sure we'll be well prepared for Wednesday.
Right wing Judd Caulfield
On the urgency tonight
I thought we came out really hard tonight. It was good to get on the board early, and I thought we played an overall pretty good game but still gave up a little bit too much on the defensive side of things. Giving up four goals isn't what we went into the game thinking, but to get out of there with a win is huge, and we just got to keep getting wins and stack them moving forward.
On special teams tonight
It's great when the special teams can step up like that. For us to get four goals on special teams, you win a lot of games if you can get that much production. So yeah, the guys were urgent. Like you were saying earlier this urgency on the power play and penalty kill, we were winning pucks back, first unit did a great job getting pucks in, [Ryan] Carpenter was great. Fun just getting tips on pucks, not letting their goalie see anything, it's just great to see.
On the third period
We knew they were going to come out with a push, so we just knew that we were going to have to come out firing and just try to push back. So, I thought we had a great job doing that. Nathan [Gaucher] obviously made a great play there, driving the net, and I was able to kind of pop it to [Coulson] Pitre there in the slot, and he put it home. It's great to see Pitre get rewarded there, because he's been playing great as well as Gaucher.
On building off this win
It's great for us to get back with a win. It always gets a little confidence back in us. Last Wednesday and Saturday, we didn't really show up with our best performance. So, we know we got to go there this coming week and just give him a lot more of an effort.
Assistant coach Michael Babcock
On the team's response after last night's game
We had a massive kill. Can't say enough good things about the kill to start the game. And then Nesty [Nikita Nesterenko] gets the break way right out of the box and buries it. It gives us a good start. The whole game, it was back-and-forth. I'm really proud of how desperate we played towards the end of the game, too. You can really see guys tighten our system up, not tighten up themselves, but just tighten up how we were playing. Happy for the guys, they earned it.
On what was clicking on the power play tonight
I thought we did a really great job on our retrievals. I thought the guys had two big-time heavy edge battles just to start the power play. And then we took our shots and we got a guy who's standing right in front. And so, we got rewarded for two of those that way. And then we make a great play on the entry on the third one. Unreal poise by Q [Roland McKeown], and we were lucky enough to bury that one too. I think it's been coming and the guys. They're working to get rewarded. They're doing a lot of really good things right. It seems potent right now, which is great. I'm happy for the guys to get rewarded.
On the fourth line and the team closing out the game
What a game by that whole line [Judd Caulfield, Nathan Gaucher and Coulson Pitre]. It's an unreal play on the goal by Nathan to get far post. And then we drive to score and we get rewarded for it. But all three of those guys were fantastic all night. Super happy for them. That gave us the lead. We gave one up. But then we found a way just to be right on top of them the rest of the game. It gets tense towards the end, right? Just because you want to win so bad. But the guys were tight. They played together. There was a lot of communication, and we're pleased with the results say the least.
On how the team can build off this win
It's big one for the guys, right? Obviously, they feel really good about themselves. So hopefully we get good rest, good recovery, and then have a good couple practices here, and then we'll be on to San Jose. But you know, you and I always talk about springboards for success, we're trying to feel good about ourselves and make sure that we're rolling as soon as the right time comes. So, for us, it's just continuing to build on the momentum, and then be ready to go as soon as the puck drops Wednesday night.
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