Gulls Confident Going Into Game One Against Eagles
Apr 22, 2026
By Ashley Rubin/SanDiegoGulls.com
Playoff hockey begins tonight for the San Diego Gulls as they get ready for game one of the Calder Cup Playoffs with the Colorado Eagles at Blue Arena (6:05 p.m. PDT; TV: AHLTV on FloHockey; Radio: Gulls Audio Network).
The best-of-three series between the Gulls and Eagles begins tonight. The winner at the end of the series will advance to the Pacific Division Semifinals. If the Gulls take this series, they will next play the Ontario Reign, who got a first-round bye as they took home the division title.
The Gulls upsetting the Eagles is not out of reach. San Diego went 3-5-0-0 against Colorado this season, the best record they have put up against the team since 2020-21 when they went 5-1-0-0. The Gulls found their first two wins at Colorado since 2022, taking the team down with two shootout wins in their rink. The Gulls ended the season with a better record on the road against the Eagles as they went 2-2-0-0 at Blue Arena and 1-3-0-0 at Pechanga Arena San Diego. The last time a Pacific Division seventh seed upset a second seed during playoffs was in the 2024 postseason when the Calgary Wranglers swept the Tucson Roadrunners.
"We're confident," Gulls captain Ryan Carpenter said, "We thought we played them hard the last time it was a four-game series. We're going to have to respect our opponent. A lot of it's going to come down to how we want to play. And like you said, these past couple of games, guys have been filtering in and out. There's been some guys that haven't been all year that have a bright future but still learning like systems and in and out."
San Diego will enter the postseason coming off the most successful regular season campaign since the 2018-19 season. The Gulls finished with a 33-26-8-4 record with 78 points and will be making their playoff debut under head coach Matt McIlvane.
"It's a big step, like we went into this season and then our thought was that we had something to prove," McIlvane said. "There's a group full of winners with something that we felt like we all had to show and being able to make it to the playoffs is a big step. There's no question. And earning the opportunity to go fight, to keep playing, it's a really exciting time of year when you look back at the whole season, certainly full of ups and downs and change, et cetera, but there's a lot to be proud of."
The series will continue for game two on Friday, Apr. 24 right back at Blue Arena (6:05 p.m. PDT).