Gulls Tame the Roadrunners at Home

Jan 10, 2025

By Samantha Mason/SanDiegoGulls.com

The San Diego Gulls showed the Tucson Roadrunners what it means to play Gulls hockey tonight, leaving Pechanga Arena victorious 3-2. 

San Diego defeated the Iowa Wild 5-1 in game one of the homestand on Wednesday night. Tonight, they kept the good times rolling. 

San Diego showed strength right out of the gate, with the first goal of the night coming from Tyson Hinds, unassisted. Tucson wasn’t too far behind and tied it up at 1-1. 

Tonight saw a career-high for Hinds, who earned three points (1-2=3) in the contest. 

"It’s just the right spot at the right time, and then good place, too," said Hinds. "For our forwards, I give all the credit to them…we're moving our feet and talking on the ice. So, it really helpful for breaking out the puck and making plays, so, really nice."

Ryan Carpenter netted his seventh goal and 17th point of the season, assisted by Travis Howe and Hinds. San Diego held the 2-1 lead to close out the second period. 

With less than three minutes remaining in the third period, Sasha Pastujov scored his seventh goal of the season with an assist from Carson Meyer. Tucson got one more, but San Diego held on for the win. 

"We've seen ourselves have some success, and to be able to find something sustainable is what we're aiming at," said head coach Matt McIlvane. "We saw it at the beginning of December, and we've seen it in our homestand here. Our big focus is to be able to keep our foot on the gas. Hard to play against. Feels cliche, but it's tangible in our locker room, and we know how it helps us to drive our success." 

The Gulls are eager for night two of their back-to-back contests tomorrow night. 

"We showed what we can do, and we answer their physicality and be more physical than them," said Howe. "And in my opinion, we can stay on that same track and even bring it to another level. It's going to be another tough night for them, hopefully." 

The Gulls return tomorrow night to take another crack at the Roadrunners at home (6 pm PST).