GULLS SCORE AT HOME, WILL WRAP STAND WITH WILD
Pechanga Arena dried out just in time for the Gulls to get hot.
San Diego returned to the ice Wednesday night following an unscheduled break and pulled off one of the most impressive victories of the year, topping Coachella Valley 4-2 in front of 5,071 fans.
The club will return to the arena tonight for the first of two games against the Iowa Wild. The puck drops at 7 p.m.
The Gulls (10-16-5-0) got one goal and a pair of assists from center Andrew Agozzino in Wednesday’s win. Jaxsen Wiebe scored the second professional goal of his young career, Colton White had the first lamplighter of his season, and Glenn Gawdin put in an empty-netter in the game’s final minute. Despite outshooting the Gulls 36-23, the Firebirds fell to 18-11-2-1.
“Anytime you play a top team, there’s a lot of them in our division, it’s important to beat them,” Agozzino told SanDiegoGulls.com following the game. “You know, if we want to climb the standings, we’ve got to (beat) the teams ahead of us.”
The Gulls had hoped that a scheduled five-game homestand could kick-start a season that’s started sluggishly. But a water main broke at Pechanga Arena last Friday, flooding the bottom level and covering the ice. The American Hockey League postponed the Gulls’ two scheduled games against the Bakersfield Condors, saying the water “significantly
affected the event level of the arena.”
The Gulls holed up at their practice facility in Poway before returning to Pechanga on Wednesday.
The weekend series against Iowa marks a chance to finish what Agozzino called “this mini-homestand.”
“The good thing,” Gulls coach Matt McIlvane said, “is we don’t have to wait another week to play.”
Rookie in All-Star Game
Gulls defenseman Olen Zellweger has been named to the 2024 AHL All-Star Classic, which will be held Feb. 4-5 in San Jose.
The 20-year-old Zellweger is the first Gulls rookie to be named an All-Star since 2017, when Kalle Kossila made the team. He becomes the fourth rookie in Gulls history to be so honored.
“I didn’t really expect that at all,” he said. “Pretty cool to be named to that ... I’m looking forward to it.”
The Ducks made Zellweger their second-round pick in the 2021 draft. Zellweger was named Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Defenseman of the Year in 2023.