Gulls Aim to Extend Success Against Barracuda
Jan 7, 2026By Ashley Rubin/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls look to take their third win over the San Jose Barracuda this season as they faceoff at Pechanga Arena San Diego (7 p.m. PT; TV: AHLTV on FloHockey; Radio: Gulls Audio Network).
The matchup tonight will mark the Gulls and Barracuda’s fourth meeting of the season. San Diego has posted a 2-0-1-0 record between those matchups and hold an all-time record of 50-26-6-1 over San Jose. The teams last met on Dec. 10 when the Gulls scored a 3-1 win on the road.
San Jose now currently holds an 18-11-1-2 record with 39 points. The team is coming off a two-game losing streak yet still occupying the third-place spot in the Pacific Division. San Diego holds only four points less with 35, placing them in the seventh-place spot with a 14-9-6-1 record. Teams ranked third through ninth in the Pacific Division are each separated by just one point.
"It’s a good team," Tyson Hinds said. "You see the standings and everything’s pretty tight so it’s an important game. I think as long as we come out strong and play our own game, we can beat anybody in the standings. We just need to play some good Gulls hockey and anything good can happen out of that."
The Gulls last hit the ice on Jan. 2 when they fell 5-2 to the Coachella Valley Firebirds. Despite the loss, four Gulls skaters were able to extend point streaks. Justin Bailey scored his 11th goal of the season, marking 1-2=3 points in back-to-back games. Ryan Carpenter recorded his sixth goal of the season, extending his streak to 2-3=5 in four contests. Sasha Pastujov also extended a streak to four games with 1-3=4 points as he logged his 16th assist of the season. Sam Colangelo picked up his fourth back-to-back assist, extending his streak to 2-4=6 in five contests.
Defenseman Roland McKeown hit a career milestone as he picked up his 200th career AHL point. McKeown has now recorded 48 goals and 152 assists in his career and leads Gulls defensemen this season in points with 2-11=13.
"It's been a fun ride," McKeown said. "Very grateful to play pro this long, and I really enjoy playing here. It's a great city, the fans are great, the boys are really close. This year, we've really come together, and it's nice to see the success. We were in the .600 win percentage before this evening. I think that shows a lot of growth and success. To be a championship team in this league, you really need that. You need to get in the six, seven hundreds to have a real chance, so it's nice to see that and we'll continue to get better in the new year."
San Diego will take a road trip this upcoming weekend as they play back-to-back matchups against the division-leading Colorado Eagles at Blue Arena on Friday Jan. 9 and Sat. Jan. 10.