Reign Showers Down on Gulls as Ontario Takes the Win
AHL San Diego Gulls

Reign Showers Down on Gulls as Ontario Takes the Win

Published on April 17, 2026 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls fell 4-1 to the Ontario Reign Friday night at Toyota Arena.

Cal Burke opened the scoring with his fifth goal of the season, his second on the power play. Burke has tallied 4-4=8 points in his last 12 games.

Stian Solberg collected his 12th assist of the season to stretch his point and assist streak to three games (1-3=4). Solberg ranks tied for fifth among AHL rookie defensemen in scoring (11-12#).

Roland McKeown tallied his 20th assist of the campaign, his second straight 20-assist season after picking up a career-high 23 last season. McKeown ranks second among Gulls defensemen in scoring with 5-20=25 points.

Damian Clara stopped 27 shots.

The Gulls wrap up the 2025-26 AHL regular season tomorrow night vs. the Coachella Valley Firebirds at Pechanga Arena (6 p.m. PDT).

POSTGAME QUOTES

SAN DIEGO GULLS

Center Cal Burke

On scoring on the power play

I think we had a lot of guys in tonight that were just trying to prove themselves, and we were trying to respond from our previous game as well. So, it was just getting to kind of our grind game and just starting to play with energy.

On young players entering the lineup

I mean, they're great. I think my line mates, like [Lucas] Pettersson, I think he's got a lot of poise, and he's a smooth skater, so I think he'll do well in this league. And then [Roger] McQueen, big guy, sees the ice well, as you know, can make some plays. So yeah, it was great playing with those guys and everyone else. I thought everyone worked hard tonight. Didn't go our way, but, you know, I thought guys did a good job trying to show themselves off.

On the feeling heading into playoffs

I think we're feeling good as a group. I think the trend in our team is in a good spot. I think we've kind of proved ourselves how good we can be. So, we're all excited to get in the playoffs, and we have a lot of confidence.

On facing Coachella Valley to end the regular season tomorrow

Coachella is always a hard team to play against. I think kind of touching what you said earlier, like with it being our last game before playoffs, I think we're going to try and make sure that our game is in top shape. And, yeah, we expect a good challenge.

Head coach Matt McIlvane

On tonight's loss to Ontario

Ontario's a great team. They had some good offensive zone possessions early and then once we got our forecheck established, I felt like we created a lot of turnovers and that led to zone time and chances, et cetera. I thought we had a really strong first period. Unfortunately, they score with, I don't know what it was, 20 seconds left in a play that doesn't need to happen. You can go into the period break with the lead instead of tied. And then in the second period, we get into a bit of penalty trouble. Obviously, they score on their power play, but we get down three guys against five, and we got through that kill. But you know, they certainly got momentum off of that. And then as we're pushing through the third period, it just felt like a lot of the pushes were empty. We weren't able to establish the kind of zone time that we would want to be able to get continuous looks to be able to generate scoring chances.

On tonight's lineup

Well, it's a blessing of the end of the season, where you get this influx of players that arrive, and you get an opportunity to go take a look at them on a night like tonight, and you see where we're at, and see what guys are doing well. There's acclimation to the league, there's acclimation to system play, there's acclimation to your teammates. It's a big adjustment for everybody and so you watch, and you try to give the guys the support that they need to be able to perform well. I think that we got a lot of energy from them. There are obviously things that everybody's learning that you can clean up so you can have connected five-man units all over the ice. But I certainly thought that we got some energy from them.

On facing Coachella Valley to end the regular season tomorrow

So, for us tonight, I don't know that we're sitting here saying, where's our effort or the focus or things like that. I think in our home game against Tucson, you're on that bridge where you just had this giant accomplishment of making the playoffs, and you go out, and it kind of feels empty in that next game because you just accomplished a big goal. But I think that the focus for this game is dialing ourselves up as much as we can, getting ready for the playoffs. So, we'll have those guys that were out tonight will be back in, and we're going to push real hard against Coachella.

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American Hockey League Stories from April 17, 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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