By Matthew T.F. Harrington
photo credit: SJ Barracuda-Barracuda celebrate win over heat Fri 12-4-15
SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Barracuda managed to collect a point in a third-straight contest against their Northern California rivals the Stockton Heat Friday night at the SAP Center. Both teams pummeled each other on the ice in a feisty showdown, but the Barracuda hit Stockton where it hurts most; the scoreboard.
“We did what we needed to do,” said Barracuda coach Roy Sommer. “We got the start we wanted, we got some goals.”
San Jose rode a three-goal first period to douse the Heat 5-3 at home. Barclay Goodrow had a goal and three assists, Ryan Carpenter added to his team-leading 12 assists with a pair of assists and a goal and linemate Petter Emanuelsson added a pair of helpers to give San Jose (8-8-0-3) 5 of a total 6 points against the AHL opponent closest in proximity to San Jose. Barracuda goalie Aaron Dell made 43 saves in a stellar outing that saw Stockton (6-8-0-2) outshoot the home team 46-18.
“You feel it early,” said Dell. “You get a couple good shots, you get comfortable. There’s not a lot of time where you’re just sitting there. You get in a rhythm. It’s a comfort level. I felt good. I had a lot of help tonight, got some goals and some blocked shots at the end where we needed them.”
The play skewed towards the physical early and often, as evidenced by a pair of fights in the opening period by San Jose defenseman Gus Young and Barracuda captain Bryan Lerg. While cooler heads prevailed after the first pair of donnybrooks, the two still combined for 38 penalty minutes.
San Jose alternate captain John McCarthy got some sweet revenge to open the game, scoring right as a penalty he drew expired. The Andover, MA native was chasing a loose puck but was ridden into the boards by Stockton’s Pat Sieloff a step before the puck, sending the Heat forward to the box for two minutes for interference. While San Jose didn’t score on the man advantage, nine seconds later McCarthy flicked a backhander in the crease over Heat netminder Joni Ortio to give the Barracuda a 1-0 lead 3:09 into the game.
“I didn’t think (Nikita Jevpalov and Nikolai Goldobin) played very well tonight,” said Sommers on McCarthy’s linemates. “McCarthy was very good. He was basically bailing them out.”
The second Barracuda goal of the period, a rebound tip-in by Carpenter, did come with a Heat player in the box. With defenseman Oliver Kylington in the box for holding, Carpenter worked himself into the perfect position to knock home a rebound from a Mirco Mueller shot just under five minutes into the game for his second point of the night.
“He was on the puck, around the puck,” said Sommer of Carpenter. “That line played like they were supposed to. They played pretty heavy.”
Despite mustering only 9 shots on goal in the first, San Jose found itself up 3-0 after Julius Bergman netted his second goal of the season 3:09 away from the first intermission. Bergman again scored on a rebound after Barclay Goodrow fed the perfect cross-ice pass to Petter Emanuelsson. Emanuelsson’s one-timer landed in Bergman’s lap for the rebound goal.
“It was nice to take the pressure off,” said Dell on the early goal support. “I got to ease into the game. It’s nice to have a lead to start off.”
“Getting those two early on was big for us,” said Goodrow. “After that we worked down low, worked on getting pucks to the net and we were rewarded for it tonight.”
Stockton answered back 14 seconds later after Kenny Agostino beat Dell for his second goal of the season, with both coming against the Barracuda. The Heat nearly added another in the waning moments of the period but Dell made a skidding save from his belly to hold Stockton to 1 goal on 12 shots.
Goodrow picked up his third point of the game in the second period. After assisting on McCarthy and Bergman’s tallies, the 22 year-old netted a goal of his own. Goodrow camped out in the crease, tucking home a loose puck off a Carpenter shot. Goodrow has scored 5 goals in 12 games since being demoted to the Barracuda from the Sharks November 4th.
“It’s at the point where I’m passed the adjustment phase,” said Goodrow, who played for the first time on a line with Emanuelsson and Carpenter. “It got to a point where I realized I wasn’t playing to how I wanted. In the last couple games I’ve played better. I’m looking forward to getting better going forward.”
Agostino tortured the Barracuda again with 28 seconds left in the 2nd. Like a number of San Jose’s goals, Agostino’s was the result of crashing the net and positioning himself in the crease. He guided a Garnet Hathaway shot back Dell to cut the lead in half 4-2 heading into the 2nd intermission. Former Shark Freddie Hamilton picked up assists on both Agostino goals.
Dell appeared to have the game on lock in the final period despite seeing 21 shots, but Aaron Johnson managed to sneak one past Dell with 3:37 left in regulation to set up a tense final moments. The Barracuda iced the game with an empty net goal by Jeremy Langlois with 13 seconds left.
“It’s always good to get a win,” said Carpenter. “But I don’t think we were too happy with how we finished the game. They took it to us in the second half. You could see it from the shots on goal. We want to have a good start. You have to play 60 minutes.
While San Jose still has 9 games remaining with Stockton, the rivalry will be put on hold until the next meeting between both teams. For now, the Barracuda will turn their attention to the Bakersfield Condors. The Condors roll into town for a Saturday matinee at SAP which will see the Barracuda don their ugly sweater jerseys.
“We’ll hopefully bring the start we had tomorrow and keep it through all 60,” said Carpenter.
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