by Jerry Feitelberg

photo by San Jose Barracuda: Barracuda skate to victory over Stockton Heat 1-6-16

SAN JOSE–The San Jose Barracuda rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the Stockton Heat 4-3 at the SAP Center Wednesday night in San Jose. With the win, the Barracuda’s record improves to 15-10-2-3 good for 35 points and third place in the Pacific Division. Stockton drops to 12-14-0-3 for the season. They currently reside in 7th place. The Barracuda did not play well until the third period. They could not take advantage of several Stockton penalties until late in the game. Trailing 3-2 with under a minute left to play, the Barracuda finally scored on the power play much to the delight of the fans.

The first period did not go well for the Barracuda. The Heat took a 1-0 with 4:24 played when Morgan Klimchuk scored his second goal of the year putting the puck past Al Stalock for the score. Kenny Agostino and former Shark Freddie Hamilton assisted on the play.San Jose had three power play opportunities, but Stockton played very well on the PK and kept the Barracuda at bay. Chris Tierney had a breakaway on the power play at the 12:39 mark but Heat goalie mad a huge stop to deny Tierney.  San Jose went on a power play when Hunter Smith went off for high sticking. The power play didn’t last long as the ‘Cuda’s Joakim Ryan went to the box for slashing. The teams had to play four on four for forty-four seconds before Stockton would have the man advantage. The Heat’s Kenny Agostino scored his seventh goal of the year as he beat Stalock with 49 seconds left in the first period. The assist went to Drew Shore.  The Heat outshot the Barracuda 12-11. Stockton in charge 2-0 after twenty minutes of play.

The second period belonged to Stockton. Each team scored a goal, but the Heat continued to play well. They killed off another penalty and outshot the Barracuda 14-6. San Jose has not been able to take advantage of four Stockton penalties so far, and Stalock has been less than stellar in goal. John McCarthy scored San Jose’s lone goal while Derek Grant notched his fifteenth of the year for Stockton in the period. The Heat leads 3-1 after two periods of play.

The Barracuda played very well in the third period.  They cut the deficit to one when Chris Tierney scored his first goal of the year as a member of the San Jose Barracuda. Jeremy Langlois and Julius Bergman picked up assists on the play. Al Stalock also played very well. He made two big stops to thwart the heat. San Jose tied the game with just thirty-five seconds left to play. The refs called Heat defenseman, Brett Kulak, for a high-stick infraction with just 1:50 left. San Jose pulled Stalock at the one minute mark and had six on four advantage when Barclay Goodrow beat Poulin to tie the game at three.

In overtime, the Barracuda’s Nikolai Goldobin scored the winning goal with just 1:51 left to play in the game. Jeremy Langlois had a breakaway, but Poulin stopped the shot. However, the rebound went to Goldobin, and he didn’t miss.San Jose wins 4-3 in overtime.