San Jose gave up two goals in the final six minutes of play, falling to the Stockton Heat 5-3 on Sunday evening and forcing a decisive game five in the best-of-five first-round series against the Calgary Flames affiliate. It was a rough night for netminder Troy Grosenick, who allowed four goals on 32 shots. He’s posted an .893 save percentage in the postseason.
Andrew Mangiapane scored the game-tying goal with just over five minutes to play and Linden Vey scored twice in the final three minutes to give the Heat life in the series. The tallies were Vey’s third and fourth of the series, respectively.
Both Nick DeSimone (5 points) and Rourke Chartier (4 points) had two-point nights and continue to play well in the postseason, while the Heat finally managed to hold the red-hot Ryan Carpenter (6 points) off the scoresheet.
Danny O’Regan got the Barracuda off to a quick start, scoring only 58 seconds into the contest. San Jose entered the zone immediately after the puck dropped on a two-on-one but netminder David Rittich saved Carpenter’s initial shot. The Heat couldn’t clear the zone and eventually Kevin Labanc made a nice pass to the Boston University product who put the ‘Cuda ahead.
The Barracuda withstood some pressure from the Heat midway through the period before applying some of their own to close out the frame with a 10-6 shot advantage. But just like in game three, Stockton took the lead in the second period. Troy Grosenick made a few key saves to keep San Jose in the lead early in the period but a couple of not-so-great moments helped put the Heat in the lead.
Grosenick can get a little wild in the crease, which at times means making spectacular saves. At other times that means getting caught well out of position and finding the puck in the back of the net. That about sums up how Stockton found itself ahead 2-1 midway through the second period on goals from Hunter Shinkaruk and Garnet Hathaway.
Buddy Robinson struck back for his third goal of the series to level things at two goals apiece before the second intermission and Tim Heed made it 3-2 San Jose five minutes into the third period. That lead held for the next 10 minutes, when Stockton struck through Mangiapane to tie things at three. Vey scored the game-winner two minutes later, and again on the empty net to ice the game.
Game five is on Tuesday night at SAP Center at 7 p.m. You can grab your tickets right over here.
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