San Jose Barracuda goaltender Aaron Dell recorded his second shutout of the season with a 26-save effort as the Barracuda continued their push towards the AHL Calder Cup playoffs with a 3-0 win over the San Diego Gulls (AHL affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks) Saturday night at the SAP Center, their first ever win on home ice over the Gulls.
Dell, who was named the game’s number one star, made saves of six, eight and 12 by period en route to shutting out the Gulls, whom were 9-1-2 in their last 12 games while averaging 4.15 goals per game. League wide, Dell is now seventh in goals-against-average (2.29) and fifth in save percentage (.925).
Scoring wise for the Barracuda, forward Nikolay Goldobin and defenseman Joakim Ryan scored power goals while forward Trevor Parkes added an empty net goal. In addition, forwards Bryan Lerg and Jeremy Morin dished out three and two assists respectively.
Goldobin scored what held up as the winning goal at 13:23 of the first period with a snap shot from the top of the left slot that beat Gulls goaltender Anton Khudobin for a power play goal, his 17th goal of the season.
After a scoreless second period, Ryan extended the lead to 2-0 at 1:19 of the third period with a one-timer slap shot from the center point that got through traffic in front for his second goal of the season.
Following Ryan’s goal, Gulls forward Corey Tropp dropped the gloves with Barracuda defenseman Karl Stollery in an attempt to spark a Gulls comeback. Though the Gulls out-shot the Barracuda 12-5 in the third period, Dell turned all their shot attempts aside to preserve the lead and shutout.
Parkes fired the puck into an empty Gulls net at 19:23 for his 15th goal of the season to seal a 3-0 Barracuda win.
NOTES… Shots on goal were 27-26 in favor of the Gulls… The Barracuda went 2-for-5 on the power play and 6-for-6 on the penalty kill… Dell improved to 14-10-5 overall… Goldobin had a game high five shots on goal… Barracuda forward John McCarthy had the secondary assist on Parkes’ empty net goal… The Barracuda wore a specialty Hawaiian shirt jersey to benefit the Surfrider Foundation Santa Cruz Chapter… Prior to the game, the Barracuda reassigned defenseman Rick Pinkston to the Allen of Americans of the ECHL while also signing forward Jon Martin and defenseman Michael Brodzinski to ATO’s… Brodzinski wore no. 75 and Martin wore no. 71 in their professional debuts… Lerg (1-4-5) and Morin (1-3-4) each have a three game point streak… The Barracuda improved to 28-21-10 with 66 points overall and 16-12-3 at SAP Center… The Barracuda rematch the Gulls on Easter Sunday with puck drop scheduled for 3 p.m/pt.
THREE STARS
1. Aaron Dell – Barracuda (26-saves, Shutout Win)
2. Joakim Ryan – Barracuda (1-0-1)
3. Nikolay Goldobin – Barracuda (1-0-1, GWG)
LINES
*In order of apperance*
Goodrow / Carpenter / Emanuelsson
Morin / Langlois / Goldobin
Lerg (A) / McCarthy (A) / Parkes
Gallant / Timmins / Martin
DEFENSE
Young / Ryan
Stollery / Bergman
Mueller / Brodzinski
GOALIES
Dell
Grosenick
SCRATCHES
Jevpalovs
McLaren
McNally
Doremus (INJ)
Torres (IR)
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