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AHL San Diego Gulls

Gulls End Busy Stretch with Another Win

February 17, 2025 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls closed out a stretch of four games in six days with their third straight victory, a 4-2 win over the San Jose Barracuda tonight. The Gulls improve to 4-1-1 since returning from the All-Star break and have secured points in five of their last six games.

Roland McKeown opened the scoring for the Gulls with his ninth goal of the season. McKeown has tallied points in back-to-back games (1-1=2)

Justin Bailey netted a pair of power play goals tonight against his former team which included the eventual game-winning goal, his first of the season. Bailey has lit the lamp in two straight games and has 5-4=9 points in his last eight contests.

Nathan Gaucher found the back of the net for the third game in a row scoring his sixth goal of the season with an empty net strike. Gaucher's three-game goal streak is the second of his AHL career.

Ryan Carpenter tallied his first three assist performance since Nov. 11, 2016. Carpenter extends his season-best point streak to six games (2-7=9) with his trio of helpers tonight.

Sam Colangelo registered his second consecutive two assist night for his team-leading ninth multi-point performance of the campaign. Colangelo's 18-15=33 points co-lead all Gulls skaters and sits T-10 among AHL rookies.

Tristan Luneau registered his team-leading 24th assist of the campaign. Luneau's 24 helpers lead all AHL rookie defensemen.

Dillon Heatherington tallied his fourth assist of the year.

Oscar Dansk stopped 25-of-27 shots for his third consecutive win and seventh of the season. Dansk tallied his first point of the year with an assist on the Gulls final goal.

The Gulls remain home and look to continue their winning ways when they take on the Abbotsford Canucks Wednesday, Feb. 19 (7 p.m.)

POSTGAME QUOTES ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚

SAN DIEGO GULLS ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚

Head coach Matt McIlvane ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚

On finishing their stretch of four games in six days strong at home tonight

What I'm the most proud of is the way we finished. You think about everything that we put into these last four games, all the travel, etc, and then to be able to finish that strong, that's the big deal. And the truth is, I think that a little bit of fatigue showed early in the game, and I think that our ability to respond and bounce back and show a really strong version of ourselves was impressive today.

On Justin Bailey's performance against his old team tonight

I know that Bailey takes a lot of pride in his game, and it's never easy when you move teams and going back and playing them again. What a cool storyline. You know that he's able to bury two on the power play and be a hero in the game today. Really, really happy for him.

On the performance of the special teams

[Our] goalie was very good on the penalty kill, and I think that a lot of it, we were able to deny in the rush and pressure and deny sets. It's a very, very good power play. Felt like we always had a stick or a block or something in the lane, and when we needed him to be great, Oscar stood on his head. The power play, converting like that. Our special teams is the reason we won the game.

On how the team responded to the crowd's energy tonight

When the game broke at the end there with the empty net, and I think Sammy made a little play over to Nathan if I'm not mistaken, you could just hear the roar and it's about as loud as I've heard this building. There was moments early in the season with some comebacks where it was it was equally as loud, but I tell you what our fans make our environment so fun to play in.

Centerman Ryan Carpenter

On the mission to defeat San Jose & their performance

These games down the stretch are super important for us, and we've been trying to take them one day at a time. And so, we weren't happy with our start, I thought we gave up too many chances to a really good offensive team, and sometimes you have to give the other team credit. But I thought we responded in the second and third, and special teams came up big too, and Dansk. He made some really big time and saves, and we needed them too, and so, I think all year we've been getting good crowds, and you want them to get behind us. And so it was nice to respond and come out of the win.

On how the group has learned to win this year and protect leads

Those are, those are big kills. I mean, you want your penalty kill the best percentage possible. But then there's also the kills and the special teams, even power plays, where it's a close game that you need to come up with either momentum or find a way to block shots and I thought guys were bought in and even to, again, making timely saves, Dansk. Sometimes when you're penalty kill is good, it's because your goalie is making good saves.

On the mood of the team post-game

Yeah, there's a lot of game, a lot of hockey to be played, and sometimes when you get a break like that, you're able to reset a little bit mentally. And I think that's what we've done so far as a group. But again, it's only really been six games since break, and it's the time of the year where you play a lot of games, and usually about now three games a week, sometimes four. And so hopefully we can just keep building off this momentum, but this is also when other teams are going to keep getting better and games are going to get tighter. It's nice to play with the lead and learn how to win those kinds of games, and hopefully it translates to some more success for us on the structure.

On the energy from the almost 12,000 person crowd

So happy for Bailey. You know, that's hard playing the whole team so quickly. And so, there can be so many nerves but for him to have two goals like that, that goal especially, was huge for us. And yeah, the crowd behind you on a back-to-back like that, it definitely gives you energy. We appreciate their support, you know, through the through the bad and the good and so it was nice to get a win for them tonight.

Left wing Justin Bailey

On his two-goal game

I think the first one, [Ryan Carpenter] did a really good job of going and winning a battle and popping it to the middle. And the second one, [Tristan Luneau] did a great job of holding it and they put me in the bumper spot in the middle of the ice there. And both of those goals, the middle was wide open. I wasn't going to miss either of those two.

On the team's hard-nosed style of play

I learned early in the season when I was over there with San Jose that San Diego plays it hard every night. They're not going to give you anything. It's going to be a hard game for 60 minutes. We have an emphasis on we're in a playoff push right now. We've been in those tight games in the third period, up one in the third period, down in the third period. The resilience in this group is pretty special. Anytime you have a team that doesn't quit, everybody's playing for each other, that's the kind of result you get.

On the electric crowd tonight

Anytime you're playing a home game with these kinds of fans, you know, it's a Sunday, the atmosphere is electric. I know there's not a lot of sports teams here in San Diego. So, for us, the emphasis is like I said, making the playoffs so do what we can to support these fans who support us.

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