Gulls Ready for Must-Win Game 2 in Colorado
Apr 24, 2026
By Ashley Rubin/SanDiegoGulls.com
Ready for more playoff hockey?
The San Diego Gulls are ready to bounce back and leave it all out on the ice in Game 2 of their best-of-three Pacific Division First Round series with the Colorado Eagles tonight at Blue Arena (6:05 p.m. PDT; TV: AHLTV on FloHockey; Radio: Gulls Audio Network).
The Gulls must win tonight’s game to stay alive in their playoff run. The team fell to the Eagles on Wednesday night in Game 1 and looking to avoid getting swept tonight. If the Gulls are successful, they will continue to the rubber match on Sunday.
"We know what’s at stake," forward Judd Caulfield said. "It's a three-game series, so we're backs against the wall a little bit for this game on Friday. But we know that we've been counted out a lot all season. So, we know that we're going to have to come out hard and just show what we got. We've been working for this for eight months now. So, we know what we got to do. We're going to go take care of business."
Wednesday’s game kicked off this series, ending in a 3-0 shutout by Colorado. Despite the shutout, the Gulls were still in the game until the end with credit to goaltender Damian Clara who saved 24-of-26 shots. The Gulls were not able to capitalize on their chances to find the back of the net but look to improve on that tonight.
"I thought we competed really hard tonight," Caulfield said. "There's so much care in the locker room, and our compete level is definitely there, but we just didn’t really play smart enough tonight. We gave them a lot of luck. Damian [Clara] bailed us out plenty of times, and we didn't capitalize on our chances either. I thought we had a lot of good looks. [Trent] Miner played well for them, and we know we're going to have to come back hard on Friday and finish our chances and limit theirs."
San Diego is searching for its first Calder Cup Playoff win since 2018-19, where the Gulls made a run to the Western Conference Finals. The team proved they can beat Colorado in the regular season, taking two games on the road, and plan to replicate that tonight.
"I think the biggest thing right now is keeping discipline, to be able to stay positive, and also have real open minds about opportunities for growth, because we left some stuff on the ice today," head coach Matt McIlvane said. "To be able to look at it with an honest perspective and own it so that we have a chance to move forward for the next game."
Depending on tonight’s outcome, Game 3 will be on Sunday, Apr. 26 back at Blue Arena (2:05 p.m. PDT).