San Diego Edged by Ontario

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AHL San Diego Gulls

San Diego Edged by Ontario

April 19, 2025 - American Hockey League (AHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


The San Diego Gulls fell to the Ontario Reign 2-1 Friday night at Toyota Arena. The Gulls ended the road portion of their 2024-25 American Hockey League schedule with a record of 14-20-2-0.

Sam Colangelo netted his 20th of the season, becoming the third rookie in Gulls AHL history to cross the 20-goal mark (also Alex Limoges, 23 in 2021-22 & Sam Steel, 20 in 2018-19). Colangelo leads all San Diego skaters in goals this season.

Tristan Luneau earned his 42nd assist of the season, which leads all AHL rookies. Among AHL defensemen, his 42 helpers rank third.

Ryan Carpenter picked up his 29th assist of the season. He ranks second among Gulls skaters in points (19-29=48) and assists.

Oscar Dansk stopped 26-of-28 shots. He also faced the fifth penalty shot of his AHL career (C. Hudon; goal).

The Gulls return to Pechanga Arena San Diego tomorrow night for the final game of the 2024-25 AHL season against the Coachella Valley Firebirds (6 p.m. PDT).

POSTGAME QUOTES

SAN DIEGO GULLS

Center Ryan Carpenter

On tonight's tight loss to Ontario

It's been our team all year, whether we've been behind in the standings or whether we've been behind in games. There's always that belief that we can come back. I think Sam [Colangelo] and [Nikita Nesterenko] gave us some energy and a little bit of confidence, but at the end of the day, got to find ways to score more than one goal to win. But [Oscar Dansk] played great for us. You have to give their team a little bit of credit as well. They're a good defensive team. Goalie played well. It's tough to come up short, but we got one more here to end the season and on a high note, especially for our fans. They've been showing up for us all season long. And so it's time for us to show up tomorrow.

On fatigue setting in

You don't want to think that way, because once you start thinking you're fatigued, then you are. So you try to fight those thoughts. Everyone's tired this time, everyone's fighting to make the playoffs, to get home ice, to clinch first. So it's that time of the year where everyone's playing a lot of games, and you got to dig deep. Tough to fall short, but I don't think it's due to the playoff push and being fatigued. I hope it's not.

On playing in front of the home crowd for the final game of the season

They've showed up for us all year long. So let's play for them, play for each other, the 20 guys on the ice and the coaching staff. I feel like we've grown together to be a tight knit group. I think that was part of the reason that that push started to happen the last 30 games. We should give them something to be proud about, something to end on a high note and go into the summer feeling a little better.

Head coach Matt McIlvane

On tonight's tight loss to Ontario

I felt like that was a much better team effort, five against five, compared to the way that we played in our last in our last game. So, from that perspective, we rebounded. Bottom line for me, the start was strong. It was a very competitive first period. Second period was too many penalties. And are they all penalties? I'm not exactly sure. Haven't gone through the video yet, but then the third period, we knew we were going to battle back. That's what we knew, and we did. Guys fought, and we're just waiting for that next one to drop for us. At the end, it's just a little bit short.

On finding their rhythm

Bottom line is that when you're killing that much, it affects a lot of things. It affects the energy of the penalty killers. It affects the rhythm of guys who don't and then between there, I think we had a power play and a half or so, some four-on-four hockey. So, it was really hard for guys to find any sort of rhythm. But our five-on-five game today felt strong. It felt like we generated a lot of great scoring chances. Their goalie was excellent, but yeah, it was certainly a better effort.

On Sam Colangelo and Nikita Nesterenko being back in the lineup

Ability, poise, speed. I thought that right away there was more plays happening on the ice that was coming off those guys' sticks. I thought that they added an NHL element to our team. It's no surprise that either one of them are ready to be NHL contributors right now, and it's great when they can come down and help.

On the team's mindset going into the final game of the season

All in effort. That's it. It's difficult when the team goal evaporates, when the playoff push is over, it's always a difficult challenge to rebound from that. And I think tonight's showing shows that we're sort of through that part of it, and now we're ready to move forward and push for each other, and push for themselves. And we have a proud group with a lot of character and I'm looking forward to showing that off one more time.

Check out the San Diego Gulls Statistics



American Hockey League Stories from April 19, 2025


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