In what has become a reoccurring and alarming theme since mid November, San Jose Barracuda goaltender Aaron Dell had another solid outing in net of 26-saves squandered as the Barracuda skaters failed to give him any goal support in a 1-0 overtime loss to the San Antonio Rampage (AHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche) at the SAP Center Sunday evening.
Omitting the Dec. 12 game when Dell was pulled after allowing three goals in the opening 5:42 of the game, Dell’s last nine complete starts going back to Nov. 11 has seen Dell allow only 22 goals to the opposition but receive only 16 goals of offensive support from his Barracuda teammates. In addition, Sunday’s overtime loss marked the sixth time in those last nine complete starts by Dell that the Barracuda offensive scored one goal or less.
Dell, who was named the game’s number three star for his efforts, was the reason why the Barracuda were able to get to overtime and extend their point streak to six games (11 points out of a possible 12) as he made 20 saves over the final 40-minutes of regulation, punctuated by a highlight reel sliding split-legged full extension save, while the Barracuda skaters only managed eight shots on goal over the same span after firing nine shots on goal in the first period.
The game’s lone goal was scored by at 3:12 of overtime by Rampage forward Reid Petryk. Starting in his own zone with the puck, Petryk skated down the middle of the ice and right past Barracuda defenseman Mirco Mueller, who didn’t react to Petryk skating in until Petryk was already passed the blue line of the Barracuda zone, and fired a snap shot from the left hash mark in the slot passed Dell for the winning goal, his sixth goal of the season.
NOTES… Shots on goal were 27-21 in favor of the Rampage… The Barracuda went 0-for-4 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill… Dell fell to 6-6-3 with a 2.59 goals-against-average and .911 save percentage… This was the first time a Barracuda game went into overtime scoreless… The Barracuda fell to 10-7-2 at SAP Center and 16-10-6 with 38 points overall… The Barracuda are back in action Jan. 13 when they travel to play the San Diego Gulls with puck drop scheduled for 7:05 p.m/pt.
THREE STARS
1. Spencer Martin – Rampage (21 saves, Shutout Win)
2. Reid Petryk – Rampage (1-0-1, Overtime GWG)
3. Aaron Dell – Barracuda (26 saves)
LINES
Goodrow / Carpenter / Emanuelsson
Goldobin / McCarthy (A) / Haley (A)
Lerg (C) / Langlois / Parkes
Gallant / Timmins / Jevpalovs
DEFENSE
Stollery / Bergman
Young / Ryan
Mueller / Cundari
GOALIES
Dell
Grosenick
SCRATCHES
Hanson
McNally
Doremus (inj)
McLaren (inj)
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