Gulls Set to Close Out Regular Season with Firebirds

Apr 18, 2026

By Ashley Rubin/SanDiegoGulls.com 

Regular season hockey comes to a close tonight for the San Diego Gulls as they take on the Coachella Valley Firebirds for Fan Appreciation Night presented by Bill Howe Plumbing, Heating & Air at Pechanga Arena San Diego (6 p.m. PDT; TV: AHLTV on FloHockey; Radio: Gulls Audio Network).  

The Gulls will finish the regular season tonight but will not stop there as they will next compete in the postseason for the first time since 2021-22. Head Coach Matt McIlvane has led the Gulls to their playoff berth, earning him a multi-year contract extension. San Diego has put up an impressive performance this season with a 33-26-8-4 record, earning the most wins the team has seen since the 36 found in the 2018-19 season.  

San Diego opened the season against Coachella Valley and will now finish it with them. The teams have skated together seven times this season with the Gulls opening the season against them with a 5-0 win. Since then, the Firebirds have taken the momentum in the season series as the Gulls have gone 2-3-2-0 against them so far. Coachella Valley has posted an overall 40-24-6-0 record this season and come into tonight with a 1-0-1-0 streak. The Gulls will be playing in their second game of a split back-to-back series as they fell 4-1 to their rival Ontario Reign last night at Toyota Arena.  

"Coachella is always a hard team to play against," Cal Burke said. "I think with it being our last game before playoffs we're going to try and make sure that our game is in top shape."

"I think that the focus for this game is dialing ourselves up as much as we can, getting ready for the playoffs," McIlvane said. "So, we'll have those guys that were out tonight be back in, and we're going to push real hard against Coachella." 

Cal Burke found the first and only Gulls goal last night, for his fifth overall and second power play goal of the season. Stian Solberg and Roland McKeown tallied the assists on the lone goal. Damian Clara was between the pipes for the third time this season, saving 27-of-31 shots.  

"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," Burke said. "So it was just getting to kind of our grind game and just starting to play with energy." 

Next week San Diego will kick off the Calder Cup Playoffs in a three-game road series against the second seeded Colorado Eagles starting Wednesday, Apr. 22 at Blue Arena (6 p.m. PDT).