Gulls Kick Off Series with Roadrunners
Oct 16, 2026By Ashley Rubin/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls begin a back-to-back series for their first meeting with the Tucson Roadrunners this season tonight at Tucson Convention Center Arena (7 p.m. PDT; TV: AHLTV on FloHockey; Radio: Gulls Audio Network).
San Diego and Tucson competed eight times last season and will meet the same this season. The Gulls finished 5-1-1-1 against the Roadrunners last season and were undefeated with a 4-0-0-0 record on the road. The Gulls hold an all-time record of 45-33-6-3 against the team, including a 27-14-2-0 record in Tucson.
The Gulls and Roadrunners have had a similar start to the season. With one less game played, Tucson has posted a 2-2-0-0 record with 4 points. San Diego has posted a 2-2-1-0 record with five points in their first five games. The Gulls enter the night having dropped their last game, while the Roadrunners are coming off a two-game winning streak.
"Discipline is definitely going to be what we're harping on going into this weekend," defenseman Matt Basgall said. "We want to get four points going into Tucson."
San Diego last played on Wednesday, Oct. 14 where they fell just short of the Ontario Reign, 3-2. As expected in the rivalry match, the game was action packed and full of penalties. The Gulls were almost perfect on the penalty kill, going 4-for-5 but struggled to capitalize on the power play, going 1-for-7. The lone power play goal was scored in the final minute of the game by Yegor Sidorov. The team looks to take that momentum and build on it this weekend to improve on the man advantage.
"It's nice," head coach Dave Manson said. "You feel that power play's been knocking on the door, so it's nice to see them get one, and hopefully, that lightens the pressure a bit. But it's something that you need rolling if you're going to have some success in this league."
Tucson last played a back-to-back series against the San Jose Barracuda on Oct. 9-10 at Tech CU Arena. They took game one 7-4 and game two 4-1 after dropping two games to the Colorado Eagles the week prior.
The Gulls and Roadrunners will close this back-to-back out tomorrow night right back at Tucson Convention Center Arena (7 p.m. PDT).