Preview: Gulls Wrap Up Road Trip Against Coachella Valley
Nov 8, 2023By Nick Aguilera/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls return to the west tonight for their first matchup of the season against the Coachella Valley Firebirds at Acrisure Arena (7 p.m. PT; TV: AHLTV; Radio: Gulls Audio Network).
The game will mark the fourth and final game of the San Diego’s road trip, a trip it has gone 0-1-2-0 so far. The two overtime losses both came against the Charlotte Checkers at Bojangles Arena. San Diego has lost six in a row but have been competitive in every game.
"You can look at [the games in Charlotte] through a lot of different lenses," head coach Matt McIlvane said. "Obviously a heartbreaking game on Friday to be that close to walking away with two points. And then we had ourselves in a good spot again on Saturday. We’re learning as a team right now how to finish those out. I felt like there were streaks of great in those games. We really loved our first two periods against Charlotte on Saturday.
"We’re on this residual mission of trying to keep improving. We’re confident that we’re making steps, and the result will come as part of our journey right now."
Goaltender Alex Stalock helped the Gulls earn a point on Saturday, making 40 saves in the contest. Despite the loss, Stalock shares McIlvane’s sentiment that the team is working through their growing pains.
"We’re a young team," Stalock said. "I’ve played on young teams in the past and it’s eerily similar where we started slow. That’s probably, maybe anticipated for a young group, right? It takes time to learn how to win at this level, especially the pro level."
The defending Western Conference champion Firebirds will provide an early-season test for the Gulls. Coachella Valley has won four in a row entering Wednesday and has an overall record of 5-2-0-0.
"Coachella’s good," McIlvane said. "We know that. They’re organized there. They’ve got experience winning and they’ve got a lot of great traits that make their team very strong. I think for us, we’ll obviously be planning and pre-scouting for Coachella, but let’s keep staying focused in on our little things. We can’t get too sidetracked by who we’re playing."
Defenseman Robert Hagg is back in the blueline mix, as he was reassigned by Anaheim to San Diego on Sunday. The Gulls sent goaltender Tomas Suchanek back to Tulsa of the ECHL on Tuesday.
The Gulls will return to Pechanga Arena San Diego after Wednesday’s game for back-to-back matchups on Friday, Nov. 10 against Calgary (7 p.m. PT) and Saturday, Nov. 11 against Colorado (6 p.m. PT).