By Matthew T.F. Harrington
SAN JOSE, Calif. – The fuzz flew Saturday at the SAP Center, but the home team couldn’t claw back in time to complete a comeback. The San Jose Barracuda fell to the San Diego Gulls 3-2 Saturday afternoon in front of 4,053 fans and hundreds of their closest plush pals after tying the game late in the third period.
Forward Barclay Goodrow scored to set off the first Teddy Bear Toss in Barracuda history and Nikita Jevpalovs lit the lamp, but a late goal from Joseph Cramarossa spoiled the Barracuda’s otherwise charitable mood. Mike Sgarbossa scored a pair of goals for the Gulls (8-2-0-0) and netminder John Gibson denied 30 of 32 Barracuda shots to leave San Jose (3-4-0-1) fans empty-handed of both bears and a win.
“It was an entertaining game,” said Barracuda coach Roy Sommer. “The fans saw a good push back from us.”
Sgarbossa netted his first goal of the game on Gulls rush in the first period. Defenseman Brandon Montour jumped up on the play and ripped a shot from the left faceoff dot. Grosenick made the save, but Sgarbossa pounced on the loose puck to bang home a goal 8:15 into the game.
The Gulls forward would net his second goal of the period, again on a deflection from one of his teammates with just under 33 seconds left in the period. Nick Ritchie cut across the slot attempting to fire a shot from dead center. A Barracuda defenseman managed to block the shot, but the puck rolled to Sgarbossa for the easy tap-in on his second goal of the game and season. The Gulls outshot San Jose 11-6 in the first.
“You get the first goal, you’re probably going to win the game or get somm point,” said Sommer. “On either side that seems to be what’s been happening to us. I told those guys ‘hey, go for it’. The team that gets the first goal wins 80, 90 percent of the time so go for it.”
Goodrow, playing in his first game with the Barracuda after a demotion from the San Jose Sharks, pulled the Barracuda within one while initiating an ursine avalanche. Linemate Scott Timmins fired a shot on Gibson that was stopped, but a falling Goodrow managed to backhand the puck over Gibson’s pad at the 18:37 mark. The bears will be donated to local charities to give to children in need during the holiday season.
“I was just trying to find the puck,” said Goodrow. “I was able to poke it in.”
The Barracuda managed 15 shots on goal in the second to take a 21-20 edge over the Gulls. The San Jose effort gave the Barracuda their first goal against the Gulls in a game two games’ worth of time. The Barracuda scored two goals in the first period of an October 21st contest at SAP before getting shutout for the remainder of the game and held completely scoreless on the following Friday.
Nikita Jevpalovs tied the game on a rebound goal of his own, beating Gibson for his second goal of the season with 7:21 left in the game. The tie would be short-lived, with Joseph Cramarossa sniping one past Grosenick blocker side for his first point of the season just over five minutes to play. San Jose again outshot the Gulls 12-8 in the final period.
“I thought we had a really good third period,” said Sommer. “It was one of the better thirds we’ve had all year. We kept the pressure on them, they didn’t have a lot. The third goal could have been prevented. I thought we could have pushed it instead of backing in. It was just a bad goal.”
With the attacker pulled, the Barracuda lit the lamp literally but not figuratively. Melker Karlsson, appearing in his first game since October 23rd, poked at a loose puck in a netfront scramble. The linesman saw differently from the goal judged and ruled the play dead.
“It was on the goal line,” said Karlsson. “I missed it two times. I hit the puck, the goalie saved it. It was lying there but I couldn’t get one.”
After facing a team they haven’t had much success against Saturday, the Barracuda get a crack at a team they scored their most recent victory over. The Barracuda host the visiting Ontario Reign Sunday, just under a week removed from San Jose handing the Kings’ affiliate their only regulation loss this year. Karlsson is expected to play.
“I felt a lot better today, more energy,” said Karlsson. “I’ll see how I feel tomorrow, but I felt pretty good.”
“As far as I know, he’s in,” stated Sommer.
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