Preview: Gulls Look To Stretch Win Streak Vs. Henderson
Dec 16, 2023By Morgan Korovec/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls are back.
The team finally returns to Pechanga Arena San Diego after picking up three straight victories in an exciting road campaign through the Midwest.
Tonight, the Gulls take home ice to faceoff with the Henderson Silver Knights in San Diego’s annual Winter Wonderland game at Pechanga Arena San Diego (6 p.m. PST; TV: KUSI-SD, AHLTV; RADIO: Gulls Audio Network).
Expect winter magic to fill the arena this evening as holiday-inspired festivities transpire, including the Teddy Bear Toss, a Gulls-themed Hawaiian shirt giveaway for the first 8,000 fans in attendance, as well as a special holiday pregame tailgate from 4-6 p.m. in the North VIP lot.
The Gulls are set to clash with the Silver Knights, American Hockey Leage affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights, in four contests throughout the 2023-2024 season. The teams first faced off in late October, where San Diego gave a vigorous attempt but lost momentum in the third, falling 4-2 in Henderson.
San Diego owns an all-time record of 265-224-32-14, including an all-time record of 33-38-2-4 in the month of December.
Ready for their revenge against the Knights, the Gulls enter tonight’s contest with more togetherness, discipline, and consistency than at the start of the season for their first meeting with the Knights.
In San Diego’s most recent game on Dec. 9 against the Rockford IceHogs, the team captured a thrilling 5-1 victory, concluding their travels in high spirits.
For the Knights in the latest game of their own road trip, the team secured an OT win, which followed a big 5-1 victory of their own.
"We’ve put a big focus on the decisions that we’re going to make to be able to fuel our offense," head coach Matt McIlvane said. "I think that consistently, we’ve been a lot better… We’ve implemented more offensive structure that I think is helping the guys."
In Rockford on Dec. 8, the Gulls celebrated another win as they matched the franchise record for largest margin of victory with a 7-0 shutout victory. Gulls goaltender Tomas Suchanek shined brightly on the ice, stopping all 21 shots, while becoming the youngest Gulls goaltender to post a shutout. After some stellar performances in net, goaltender Suchanek was named the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week for the week ending Dec. 10 after he went 3-0-0 with a 1.00 goals against average during the road trip.
"You know, it feels pretty good," Suchanek said. "But this is for all the guys, because they played really great in front of me, so this is for the whole team and for the great work we put in this week."
"All Tomas has done is show up with a smile, work, and perform, and we’re grateful for him," McIlvane added. "I think he would be the first to tell you that his success is a part of team success, and the guys played really well in front of him."
San Diego will look to bring more of that magic on the ice tonight, for their first game after a week absent of contests.
"Finding weeks to be able to rest and work are difficult to come by in the American League is what I’m learning," McIlvane said. "We have a unique week here where we can do a little bit of both, make sure that we’re maximizing our days and getting better. At the same time, that was a big push on our road trip, and get a chance to gear down and get a little bit of much needed rest as well.
"I think all we do is when it’s time to perform, we perform at a high level and when we get an opportunity to rest, we take advantage of that."
Tonight’s game will be not only a shot at redemption for round two against Henderson, but a testament to the Gulls’ evolution, as they’ve showcased growth in the consistency of their game and comfortability playing together.
The Gulls are set to face the Knights next on January 3 in Henderson. Until then, San Diego will host another familiar opponent, the Rockford IceHogs for a mid-week matchup next Wednesday Dec. 20 (7 p.m. PST) and Friday Dec. 22 at Pechanga Arena San Diego (7 p.m.).