Gulls Taken Down by Firebirds, 5-2
AHL San Diego Gulls

Gulls Taken Down by Firebirds, 5-2

Published on January 2, 2026 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls fell to the Coachella Valley Firebirds 5-2 Friday night at Pechanga Arena. San Diego now stands with a 14-9-6-1 record.

Justin Bailey netted his 11th goal of the season, giving him points in back-to-back games (1-2=3). He ranks second among Gulls skaters in goals.

Ryan Carpenter scored his sixth goal of the season, his 20th point of the campaign (6-14 ). He now has points in four straight contests (2-3=5).

Roland McKeown tallied his 200th career AHL point with an assist, his 11th of the season. He leads Gulls bluelines with 2-11=13 points.

Sasha Pastujov collected his 16th assist of the season, giving him four points across his last four games (1-3=4).

Noah Warren earned an assist, his sixth this season.

Ville Husso made 21 saves.

The Gulls return to Pechanga Arena on Wednesday to face the San Jose Barracuda (7 p.m. PST).

POSTGAME QUOTES

SAN DIEGO GULLS

Defenseman Roland McKeown

On tonight's loss to Coachella Valley

Ultimately, they just had the jump at critical times. Net front coverage, rush coverage, failed to pick up the weak side and that front on that third one. So ultimately, when you do that and you lose the special teams, it's just hard to hard to win those games. We've been good after Christmas, never too high, never too low, and we bounce back on Wednesday.

On recording his 200th AHL career point

It's been a fun ride. Very grateful to play pro this long, and I really enjoy playing here. It's a great city, the fans are great, the boys are really close. This year, we've really come together, and it's nice to see the success. We were in the .600 win percentage before this evening. I think that shows a lot of growth and success. To be a championship team in this league, you really need that. You need to get in the six, seven hundreds to have a real chance, so it's nice to see that and we'll continue to get better in the new year.

On what changes need to be made to get back on track

Probably focus on zone time. We're really good at it now. We need to generate more from down there. Where's our place, and then, just like I talked about our net front, how to cover the around the worlds and stuff from the other teams we're seeing. It seems like that's a little area of gray right now that we need to clean up. Then we've gotten two rush coverage goals on us, Tucson and tonight. So that weak side, figure that out, and from there we'll get better.

Head coach Matt McIlvane

On what Coachella was able to do to slow the team down

They defended hard. They dropped their last couple of games, and you could tell that they were a team that was urgent to defend, and it was going to really test us, and we didn't have enough of the juice to be able to push back against it. We weren't finding our shots and our goals as easily as we have at times. You go down 2-0, you battle back and then settle the score. Then, they win a big net front battle, and we couldn't find one of those in the game the rest of the way. So, it ends up being the difference

On the team's ability to come back

We've seen ourselves be able to battle back numerous times, so we know we're capable of it. It didn't fall for us tonight. I did think that we got more looks as the game went, but it was not enough and not enough volume, not enough looks and probably earned that.

On Roland McKeown logging his 200th AHL career point

He's a great teammate. He's a great leader. He's exemplary on the ice and off the ice, and we're fortunate to have him.

On the upcoming schedule

We've been traveling a bit. It's been a fast schedule since we got back, so it's a big opportunity to get some rest and then we can get to work. There's plenty of opportunities for us to get better from this game, so we'll take these days and we'll get there.

Check out the San Diego Gulls Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from January 2, 2026


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.

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