Photo credit: San Jose Barracuda (@sjbarracuda)

By: Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, CA – It was a banner raising night at the SAP Center. Unfortunately for the San Jose Barracuda, that was a good as it got. They came out flat and were out performed by the defending Calder Cup champion Grand Rapid Griffins 7-3. San Jose entered their home opener by commemorating their 1st Pacific Division title with a not so flattering effort from start to finish.

The Griffins were the ones that got off to a quick start with a goal just under 2 minutes into the 1st period as Dominic Turgeon scored his 2nd goal of the season with a wrist shot the beat goalie Troy Groesnick above his shoulder. Turgeon was left wide open in the slot after taking a nice feed from Axel Holmstrom. Matt Lorito was also credited with an assist.

Corey Elkins scores his 1st goal with just under 10 minutes left in the 1st period as he swiped in a rebound at 10:46 after a shot trickled toward the net off a broken stick by Ryan Sproul. Holmstrom received the secondary assist.

It got even worse for the Barracuda in the 2nd period. Griffins forward Turner Elson scored just 2 minutes in after taking a feed from forward Colin Campbell to give the Griffins a three goal lead. San Jose couldn’t stay out of the penalty box the rest of period and Grand Rapids made them pay for it. Power play goals a minute and fifteen second apart put the game out of reach. Lorito scored his 1st goal of the season by tipping in a shot from the point by center Ben Street at 11:16 and Matt Carey also netted his first on the season on a puck he also tipped in from a shot from the point by defenseman Joe Hicketts at 12:31.

“We have 10 rookies in the lineup, so there’s going to be growing pains, said head coach Roy Sommer after the game. “And it’s probably not going to be pretty. We were kinda reeling from the get go.”

Turgeon scored his 2nd goal of the night after taking a feed from Campbell who found him behind the night and stuffed it in past Antoine Bibeau at 4:41 of the 3rd period. Bibeau replaced Grosenick, who finished the night with 16 saves on 21 shots, in goal. Elson concluded the scoring for the Griffins after receiving a gift from Bibeau on a bad giveaway. Bibeau was attempting to clear the puck around the boards when it found Elson’s stick for an empty net goal.

The Barracuda avoided the shutout when Brandon Mashinter scored his 1st goal of the year when he received Jeremey Roy’s pass from the right point and rammed it home past Griffins goalie Jared Coreau at 7:55 of the 3rd period. Radim Simek scored his first goal just over 2 minutes later from 10 feet out after receiving a pass from Adam Helewka on a nifty 3-on-2 break. Brandon Bolig joined the party with his 1st goal of the season when his pass deflected off Turgeon’s skate and into the back of the net past Coreau, who finished the night with 23 saves on 26 shots.

NOTES: Barracuda right winger Manuel Wiederer suffered an upper body injury midway through the 2nd period was he was blindsided by a big hit at center ice. He has been ruled out of the lineup for tomorrow.

Fisticuffs: San Jose’s Tim Clifton and Grand Rapids’ Dylan Sadoway got into it with each other in the 1st period after Clifton dished out a hard check on Griffins’ Filip Hronek. SJ’s Jacob Midddleton and GR’s Matt Carey scuffled in the 3rd period.

San Jose was 0-4 on the power play while Grand Rapids was 2/4.

UP NEXT: The San Jose Barracuda take on the San Antonio Rampage tomorrow at 1:15pm at the SAP Center.