\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tApr 10, 2026<\/p>\n
By Ashley Rubin\/SanDiegoGulls.com\u00a0<\/p>\n
The San Diego Gulls and Bakersfield Condors are set for a\u00a0final back-to-back series\u00a0where\u00a0the Gulls look\u00a0to\u00a0clinch\u00a0their playoff spot\u00a0starting tonight at Dignity Health Arena (7 p.m. PDT; AHLTV on\u00a0FloHockey; Radio: Gulls Audio Network).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Gulls\u00a0could clinch their\u00a0first\u00a0Calder Cup Playoff spot\u00a0since\u00a02022\u00a0tonight.\u00a0If\u00a0San Diego\u00a0takes\u00a0a win\u00a0and\u00a0the Tucson Roadrunners lose\u00a0to the Colorado Eagles\u00a0in\u00a0any capacity\u00a0or\u00a0San\u00a0Diego\u00a0earns an\u00a0overtime\u00a0point\u00a0and Tucson loses in\u00a0regulation,\u00a0the spot will\u00a0be secured for the Gulls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’re fighting for our lives,”\u00a0head coach\u00a0Matt\u00a0McIlvane\u00a0said. “We know that urgency has been a thing for us for the last month or so because we know how tight it is. We know we have so much respect for our division and how tight the race is. So, every bit of this experience that we can stack together is valuable.\u00a0We’ll\u00a0just keep collecting those experiences.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Gulls have been heating up, taking seven of their past 10 contests. The team is on a three-game winning streak as they took victories over the Roadrunners, Condors, and most recently over the San Jose Barracuda on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“For the past 10 games, we know it’s going to be a hard race\u00a0to\u00a0the playoffs,”\u00a0defenseman\u00a0Nikolas Brouillard\u00a0said. “Coming into this season, it was\u00a0a big thing\u00a0for us, making playoffs. So, I feel like\u00a0we’ve\u00a0played the playoff style the\u00a0whole year.\u00a0It’s\u00a0paying off.\u00a0It’s\u00a0paying off for us right\u00a0now, because\u00a0we’re\u00a0hard to play against, and\u00a0we’re\u00a0playing that gritty, gritty style of hockey that you know the playoffs need.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
San Diego has\u00a0found success over Bakersfield this season,\u00a0winning five of the six contests\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0played. The Gulls and Condors\u00a0last competed on April 3 when the Gulls took a 6-3 win.\u00a0The Condors stand four points over the Gulls in the Pacific Division standings with 80 points, having clinched a playoff spot\u00a0Wednesday night\u00a0with\u00a0a\u00a0victory over\u00a0the Roadrunners. The Gulls have 76 points to their name and look to take four from the Condors this weekend to\u00a0potentially\u00a0jump them\u00a0for sixth\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0Pacific\u00a0Division\u00a0rankings.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s contest marked the Gulls\u2019 first day game win of the season\u00a0and broke\u00a0a four-game losing streak against the Barracuda.\u00a0Calle Clang\u00a0made some essential saves, allowing only two goals through 37 shots.\u00a0Matthew Phillips, Sasha\u00a0Pastujov, and\u00a0Sam Colangelo\u00a0each found the back of the net.\u00a0Nathan Gaucher\u00a0scored\u00a0two goals to mark\u00a0five found in his past two contests.\u00a0Brouillard\u00a0made history as he became the Gulls\u2019 all-time games played leader with 229\u00a0skated, tallying two assists in the record-breaking game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tomorrow will mark the Gulls\u2019 series finale with the Condors\u00a0right back at Dignity Health Arena before the team heads back home to close out their season series with the Roadrunners at Pechanga Arena San Diego (7 p.m. PDT).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apr 10, 2026 By Ashley Rubin\/SanDiegoGulls.com\u00a0 The San Diego Gulls and Bakersfield Condors are set for a\u00a0final back-to-back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-261237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}