Anaheim Ducks: San Diego Gulls Clinch a Spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs

The Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls, have qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs and will, hopefully, make a deep run for the cup.

For the first time in several years, the Anaheim Ducks missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs by a mile, leaving a lot of fans disappointed. With change on the horizon, our focus has shifted to the AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls. After barely missing out on the playoffs last season, 2018-19 was their season to right their wrongs and make a push for the Calder Cup Playoffs.

After losing to the San Jose Barracuda in regulation on April 10th, however, their shot at the playoffs hung in the balance. One of two situations needed to happen in order for them to clinch a playoff spot. The Gulls would need to defeat the Tuscon Roadrunners in their first of two games or the Colorado Eagles would need to lose to the San Jose Barracuda. If they lost, and the Eagles won, they would miss the playoffs for the second season in a row.

Unfortunately, after making a valiant effort to win against the Roadrunners, the Gulls lost in overtime. Fortunately for them, earlier in the evening, the Colorado Eagles lost to San Jose in regulation, allowing the Gulls to officially clinch a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs.

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On Saturday, during their back to back in Tuscon, San Diego ended their season with a 4-3 win against the Roadrunners. With 80 points in 69 regular season games, they finish 3rd in the Pacific Division and will face their cross-state rivals, the San Jose Baraccuda in the first round of the playoffs.

Round 1 Schedule: San Diego vs San Jose

The format for the Calder Cup Playoffs is a little bit different than the typical Stanley Cup Playoffs format we are all used to. In the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs, the divisional semi-finals, the teams play in a best out of five formats. If they advance to the second round, from there on forward, the format then reverts back to best our of seven.

When the San Diego Gulls meet the San Jose Baraccuds in the first round, Games 4 and 5 will only be played if absolutely necessary. The first team to win three games in the series advances on to the next round. The Gulls have the home-ice advantage in the first two games, which could serve to benefit them.

Game 1 (Home): Wednesday, April 17 7:00 pm PST

Game 2 (Home): Thursday, April 18 7:00 pm PST

Game 3 (Away): Monday, April 22 7:00 pm PST

*Game 4: Wednesday, April 24 at 7:00 pm PST

*Game 5: Thursday, April 25 at 7:00 pm PST

Going Forward

We understand that our site is dedicated to the Anaheim Ducks. However, the future is very important to this team, especially in light of their recent season. The San Diego Gulls are a very big part of their future, and while the Calder Cup Playoffs may not determine how much success these players could have at an NHL level, Ducks Nation is equally as excited to watch them in the playoffs as we would be if the Ducks had made it to the Stanely Cup Playoffs.

Going forward, we will do our best to keep you up to date with the San Diego Gulls during their run to the Calder Cup. All eyes will be on Max Jones, Sam Steel, and Troy Terry, should he return. However, there are bound to be players on Dallas Eakins roster that step up and surprise us all.

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Don’t forget, you can follow along with all of the action by watching live on AHLtv, listening in on the Mighty 1090, or if you have the option, driving down to San Diego to cheer on the Gulls in person.

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