By Matthew T.F. Harrington

photo credit: San Jose Barracuda–Barracuda goalie Aaron Dell made 26 saves against the San Diego Gulls for the shutout on Saturday night at SAP Center

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Barracuda coach Roy Sommer wound up a penny richer Saturday, then added a victory to his windfall Saturday.

“I have to attribute this win to (Sharks associate coach) Larry Robinson,” said Sommer. “He found a good luck penny, and he said when you find a good luck penny you have to give it to someone. Then you put it in your shoe and here it is.”

With penny firmly secured in his loafer, Sommer led his charges to a 3-0 win over the San Diego Gulls at SAP Center, moving back into the final playoff spot by percentage points. Nikolay Goldobin and Joakim Ryan scored power play goals, while Trevor Parkes added an empty net goal. Aaron Dell picked up his second shutout of the season for San Jose, making 26 saves.

“They had a couple chances,” said Dell. “But for the most part we kept them to the outside. We did a great job all night of staying inside on them.”

San Jose (28-21-7-3) dominated the special teams play Saturday, going 2 for 5 on the power play in a penalty-filled contest that saw a combined 17 infractions.

“I told these guys if the (power play) is successful against these guys, we’ll win,” said Sommer. “That won the game for us tonight.”

While the Barracuda were successful a man up, they managed well enough down a skater as well. Despite San Diego going on the power play 6 times, including a 5-on-3, the Barracuda netminder only had to make 4 saves on the penalty kill.

“We weren’t letting them set up,” said forward John McCarthy on what the kill did successfully Saturday. “They never really got into the zone. They just kept trying to chip it in. We were beating them to the pucks and making the close plays to get it out.”

Goldobin scored his first goal in 4 games 13:23 into the game with the Barracuda on the power play. The 20-year-old winger streaked down the right boards of the Gulls zone before pulling the puck back to work his way into the slot. From there the Russian winger sniped a shot past Gulls keeper Anton Khudobin for his 17^th strike of the season and 5^th goal in the last 9 games. Jeremy Morin and Bryan Lerg assisted on the man advantage marker.

“As he goes, we go,” said Sommer. “We could have 3 20 goal scorers with him and Lerg and Goodrow. I haven’t had a 20 goal scorer in a long time.”

The Barracuda again scored on the power play in the 3rd, with a skater who is probably at the bottom of Sommer’s list of potenatial 20 goal scorers. Defenseman Joakim Ryan netted his 2^nd goal of the season just 1:19 into the 2^nd frame. He ripped a shot from straightaway center at the point that worked its way around a Bryan Lerg screen past Khudobin for the 2-0 lead.

Morin and Lerg again picked up the assists. Lerg also picked up the primary helper on Parkes’ empty net goal with 37 seconds left in regulation.

While Sommer will have his lucky penny in tow hoping for a similar result, he knows Sunday’s matinee against San Diego (33-22-2-2) won’t be a carbon copy of Saturday’s decisive win.

“It’ll be a different game tomorrow,” said Sommer. “I liked the energy tonight. We have a lot of tough games ahead. I told the guys to not look too far ahead, focus on tonight, first five minutes, next five minutes. Then we’ll worry about Sunday.”