Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE–The San Jose Barracuda (12-11-0-1) were almost haunted for a second straight game by a late rally from the Bakersfield Condors (10-12-3-0), but held on in the final seconds of the game for a 3-2 victory and earned a split in their back-to-back series at SAP Center on Sunday afternoon.

The Cuda got off to a strong start with an aggressive attack in the 1st period. Adam Helewka buried a penalty shot on Bakersfield goalie Nick Ellis (6-6-1) for his fourth goal of the season at the 8:24 mark. San Jose outshot Bakersfield 9-5 in the period. Their penalty kill was able to stymie three power play chances by Bakersfield keeping the Condors scoreless heading into the second period.

Rudolfs Balcers made the most of his opportunities in the second period when he scored the next two goals in a span of four minutes for San Jose. The first one, and fourth of the season, came when he was able to tip in a shot from Brandon Bolig at 3:23. His fifth goal of the season was scored when he able to cut back in the slot and snapped a shot past Ellis, going top shelf at 7:26. It was his team-leading 19th point of the season.

However the Cuda seemed to have relaxed on their 3-0 lead when 14 seconds later Condors right-winger Ty Rattie got his team on the board scoring his 10th goal of the season cutting the lead to 3-1.

In the third period, San Jose went into protect mode as they only had four shots on goal. Bakersfield continue to push back with 11 shots and provided some late game drama as they cut the lead to 3-2 with just eight seconds left in the game when left-winger Joey LaLeggia scored his fifth goal of the season. The Condors had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, but Josh Currie couldn’t find the back of the net with a final shot coming off a pass from Rattie, and the Barracuda survived to split the weekend set.