Playing their first game in six nights, the San Jose Barracuda rallied from three goals down inside the final 10-minutes of the third period to force overtime before falling 6-5 in the extra session to the Stockton Heat (AHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames) at the Stockton Arena Saturday night.
Barracuda forward Trevor Parkes, who was named the game’s number three star, had a three point night with two assists and the game-tying-goal at 19:33 of the third period. In addition, Barracuda forward Nikolay Goldobin extended his point streak to five games with two assists while forwards Barclay Goodrow, Bryan Lerg, Ryan Carpenter and John McCarthy each scored a goal.
The Barracuda, who trail the San Diego Gulls by .010 percentage points for the final guaranteed playoff spot in the Pacific Division, scored the game’s first goal at 2:13 of the first period when Goodrow fired a drifting snap shot from the right circle face-off dot past Heat goaltender Kent Simpson for his team leading 16th goal of the season. Goldobin and Barracuda forward Jeremy Langlois had the assists on the goal, which was Goodrow’s seventh goal against the Heat this season.
Nearly two minutes later at 4:00, the Heat tied the game on forward Kenny Agostino’s 16th goal of the season off a backhanded shot from on top of the crease set up by a centering feed from the right half board. At 9:24, the Heat took a 2-1 lead on a power play goal by defenseman Kenny Morrison, who beat Grosenick with a rocket of slap shot from the right point for his first goal of the season after Langlois failed to clear the puck out along the left side.
Midway through the second period at 10:19, former
Lerg answered back for the Barracuda at 13:01 when his centering feed from on top of the right circle disappeared in the traffic on top of the crease and eventually wound up in the back of the net for his 13th goal of the season. Parkes and Barracuda defenseman Joakim Ryan were credited with the assists.
Inside the opening four-and-a-half minutes of the third period, the Heat extended their lead to 5-2 with two goals in a 2:21 span. Agostino finished off a two-on-zero rush with Hamilton at 2:20 for his second goal of the game (17th of the season), which was followed by forward Mason Raymond’s third goal of the season at 4:21 off a backhanded shuffle shot from the right side of the crease.
With the Heat cruising along near the midway point of the third period with a three goal lead, Barracuda forward Micheal Haley beat out an icing call and sent a centering feed from behind the net to Parkes, who had his shot on goal stopped by Simpson. However, Simpson left a rebound in the slot and Carpenter, who was trailing on the play after making the initial pass to Haley from inside the Heat zone, fired the loose puck in the slot passed Simpson for his 11th goal of the season.
Still trailing by two goals with two minutes to go in the third period, Grosenick was pulled for the extra attacker and McCarthy cut the Heat lead to 5-4 at 18:49 when he fired the puck into an open net off a behind the net centering feed from Goldobin for his sixth goal of the season, which extended his point streak to four games.
On the ensuing face-off, Grosenick was back in net but quickly headed off the ice for the extra attacker again once the Barracuda had control of the puck. After a nice keep in at the left point by Barracuda defenseman Karl Stollery, Parkes worked his way to the top of the crease and fired in a rebound shot at 19:33 for the game-tying-goal. Barracuda defenseman Julius Bergman was credited with the lone assist on the goal, which was Parkes’ 10th of the season.
In overtime, Raymond stripped Goodrow of the puck in the neutral zone and pushed the puck ahead into the Barracuda zone, where Grosenick took a chance by coming out to the right circle to challenge for the puck. Grosenick missed the puck and Raymond fired the puck into an open net from a parallel angel at 3:00 to win the game for the Heat.
NOTES… Shots on goal were 39-37 in favor of the Heat.. .The Barracuda went 0-for-1 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill… Grosenick finished with 33 saves and is now 10-7-4 with a 3.09 goals-against-average and .900 save percentage… Barracuda forward Scott Timmins and defenseman Rick Pinkston were the only two Barracuda skaters to not register a shot on goal… Barracuda forward Raffi Torres played in his first game since Feb. 10 and dropped the gloves with Heat forward Mitchell Heard at 12:52 of the first period… McCarthy has a goal and three assists during his four game point streak… Lerg extended his point streak to six games (3-3-6)… The Barracuda are now 9-7-7 on the road and 21-17-9 with 51 points overall… The Barracuda are back in action Sunday afternoon (Feb. 21) when they rematch the Heat with puck drop scheduled for 4 p.m/pt.
THREE STARS
1. Mason Raymond – Heat (2-0-2, OT GWG)
2. Freddie Hamilton – Heat (1-2-3)
3. Trevor Parkes – Barracuda (1-2-3)
LINES
Goldobin / Langlois / Goodrow
Lerg (C) / McCarthy (A) / Smith
Haley (A) / Carpenter / Parkes
Torres /
DEFENSE
Young / Ryan
Stollery / Bergman
McNally / Pinkston
GOALIES
Grosenick
Dell
SCRATCHES
Cundari
Doremus
Emanuelsson
Mueller
Gallant (scr)
McLaren (inj)
As many of you know, Fear the Fin is an independent site run by Sharks fans for Sharks fans. Help keep Fear the Fin independent by contributing to our