Gulls Look to Seal Weekend Sweep Over IceHogs
Feb 21, 2026
By Ashley Rubin/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls look to keep their momentum going and take a sweep over the Rockford IceHogs tonight at BMO Center (2 p.m. PST; TV: AHLTV on FloHockey; Radio: Gulls Audio Network).
The Gulls and IceHogs competed last night for just the seventh time in all of AHL history. San Diego took a 5-4 victory, making their all-time record over Rockford 6-0-1-0.
"We’re gonna build on that third period," Sasha Pastujov said. "We’ll certainly watch the first, learn from it, and not let it happen again. I think we’re gonna learn from that third and grow on it and a strong start will be key. Maybe a little motivation watching the U.S. win gold."
San Diego found success with special teams last night with both a perfect powerplay and penalty kill. The team went 3-for-3 on both, bringing their powerplay percentage to 18.9% and penalty kill success rate to 84.2%
Pastujov found two of the man advantage goals, ending the night with three points. The winger has extended his point streak to five games, logging 3-5=8 points. Ryan Carpenter found the third powerplay goal, marking his second point of the night. The captain has logged both a goal and an assist in two consecutive games.
"Like I said, we really felt we had a strong game on the powerplay last game, and nothing went so just trying to stay consistent," Pastujov said. "Luckily, we had good screens and winning puck battles and without [Ryan] Carpenter winning every draw we don’t get possession. Sam [Colangelo] and [Matthew] Phillips on the entries were great and [Tristan] Luneau’s deception, all five guys were working together. It was a really good night for the powerplay and luckily, I was able to cash in on two of them but there’s five of us out there working as a unit and to go 3-for-3 is huge."
Stian Solberg logged his first career AHL multi-goal game with his second being the game winner. The defenseman has logged 8-6=14 points this season, exceeding his total from last season. Matthew Phillips also hit a career milestone, logging his 200th career AHL assist. The forward went on to pick up another assist and co-leads all Gulls skaters in assists this season with 25 logged. Tristan Luneau also saw a successful night with two assists tallied himself, bringing his season total to 4-14=18 points.
"Really happy for the guys," assistant coach Michael Babcock said. "We had tremendous puck speed, great puck support, resiliency in terms of winning our puck battles especially to lead to the first goal. Obviously, two quick ones right after that and they’re huge moments for our team but the guys have been great all year."
The victory last night brings the Gulls’ record to 23-15-6-4 with 56 points. The team trails the fifth place Pacific Division spot by only three points. A win tonight would bring the team one step closer to climbing the rankings.
Following tonight the Gulls will head back home to take on the Tucson Roadrunners on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at Pechanga Arena San Diego (7 p.m. PST).