Barracuda extend winning streak to franchise best five games

Playing in the night cap of a double header day at the SAP Center Saturday night, the San Jose Barracuda extended their franchise best winning streak to five games with a 6-4 victory over the San Antonio Rampage (AHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche).

The Barracuda, who have moved into second place in the Pacific Division as a result of their winning streak, got multi-point games from forwards Micheal Haley (two goals, assist), Barclay Goodrow (goal, assist), Ryan Carpenter (goal, assist), John McCarthy (two assists) and Trevor Parkes (two assists). In addition, forward Nikolay Goldobin had a two point game as well and extended his goal streak to three games, giving him five goals over that span.

In a first period that saw four goals scored and a Rock’em Sock’em Robots style fight between Rampage forward Daniel Maggio and Barracuda forward Alex Gallant, the Rampage scored the game’s first goal when defenseman Mat Clark fired a shot form the right half wall that go through traffic in front and beat screened Barracuda goaltender Troy Grosenick at 3:26 for his first goal of the season.

Barracuda captain Bryan Lerg tied the game nearly three minutes later at 6:20 when he corralled a chip pass from linemate Jeremy Langlois, skated in alone, faked a slap shot and then slid a backhander past Rampage goaltender Roman Will for his eighth goal of the season. Parkes had the secondary assist.

Just 22-seconds later, Goodrow corralled a rebound in the slot and fired the puck past Will for his team leading 14th goal of the season. Barracuda defenseman Julius Bergman, who fired the initial shot on net from the right point, had the lone assist.

Haley extended the lead to 3-1 at 16:41 with his 10th goal of the season off a power play score (his fourth power play goal of the season) that saw Haley bury home a one-timer from deep in the right face-off circle after a nice through-the-slot pass from Carpenter. Barracuda forward Nikita Jevpalovs was credited with the secondary assist.

Picking up where they left off, the Barracuda took a 4-1 lead at just 1:53 of the second period when Haley shuffled a backhanded rebound shot through the wickets of Will for his second goal of the game and 11th goal of the season. McCarthy and Barracuda defenseman Mark Cundari, who made the goal possible by forcing a turnover in the Rampage zone with his defensive pressure, picked up the assists.

The Rampage stopped the bleeding at 3:00 when forward Sam Henley jammed home a rebound for his second goal of the season after Grosenick had stopped Maggio’s initial shot from the left point off a face-off win in the Barracuda zone.

Goldobin regained the Barracuda’s three goal lead at 6:17 when he corralled a loose puck behind the net, skated out to the right side and fired the puck up-and-over Will for his 11th goal of the season, which held up as the winning goal and was assisted by Haley and McCarthy.

Just 48-seconds into the start of the third period, the Rampage cut the Barracuda lead to 5-3 when defenseman Nikita Zadorov corralled a cross zone pass and beat Grosenick with a howitzer of a one-timer slap shot from the right point for his eight goal of the season.

Carpenter gave the Barracuda a 6-3 lead nearly four minutes later at 4:28 with his sixth goal of the season off a rebound score that saw Carpenter crash the net and sweep the puck into an open net after Will thought he had the puck when stopping Carpenter’s initial snap shot from on top of the right slot. Parkes and Goodrow picked up the assists.

Though the Rampage out-shot the Barracuda 14-7 in the final frame and got a late goal at 15:27 when defenseman Chris Brigas finished off an odd man rush by beating Grosenick with a one-timer from the top of the center slot for his sixth goal of the season, it was too little too late as the Barracuda held on for a 6-4 victory.

NOTES… Shots on goal were 31-28 in favor of the Barracuda…. The Barracuda went 1-for-4 on the power play and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill… Grosenick finished with 24-saves in his first start since Dec. 27 and improved to 8-4-3 with a 3.09 goals-against-average and .900 save percentage… Haley had a game high seven shots on goal… Earlier in the week, Grosenick was reassigned to the Barracuda from the San Jose Sharks, who recalled goaltender Alex Stalock, forward Chris Tierney and defenseman Matt Tennyson… Barracuda forward Scott Timmins returned to the lineup after missing the last 12 games due to a leg injury… Goldobin (5-3-8) and Goodrow (3-2-5) each have a four game point streak while Langlois (1-3-4) has a three game point streak and Lerg (1-1-2), McCarthy (1-2-3) and Bergman (0-2-2) each have two game point streaks… The Barracuda improved to 10-7-1 at the SAP Center and 16-10-5 with 37 points overall… Barracuda head coach Roy Sommer picked up AHL win 633 and is only three wins away from tying Fred “Bun” Cook for the most wins in AHL history… The Barracuda are back in action Sunday afternoon as they rematch the Rampage at SAP Center with puck drop scheduled for 3 p.m./pt.

THREE STARS
1. Micheal Haley – Barracuda (2-1-3)
2. Trevor Parkes – Barracuda (0-2-2)
3. Ryan Carpenter – Barracuda (1-1-2)

LINES
Goodrow / Carpenter / Emanuelsson
Goldobin / McCarthy (A) / Haley (A)
Lerg (C) / Langlois / Parkes
Gallant / Timmins / Jevpalovs

DEFENSE
Stollery / Bergman
Young / Ryan
Mueller / Cundari

GOALIES
Grosenick
Dell

SCRATCHES
Hanson
McNally
Doremus (inj)
McLaren (inj)