Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Jon Gillies was rock-solid in the net and Andrew Mangiapane provided the offense for the Stockton Heat (19-12-2-3) shutout the San Jose Barracuda (17-16-0-2) 2-0 at SAP Center on Wednesday night.

The first period saw no one light up the red lamp. but both teams had plenty of scoring chances. The Barracuda had two opportunities to score on the power play, but weren’t able to get the puck past Gillies (12-8-4). San Jose had a 2-on-0 break in Stockton’s zone with three seconds left in the period but weren’t able to get a shot off in time. The Heat had their own opportunity on the power play, but thanks to a stifling penalty kill led by goalie Troy Grosenick (5-7-2) the teams headed into the first intermission scoreless. San Jose out shot Stockton 15-8.

Andrew Mangiapane broke the deadlock in the 2nd period when he scored his 15th goal on the season from the right slot. A bad turnover by the Cuda gave Mike McMurty a wide open scoring chance that went through the crease and found Mangiapane alone to bury the puck past Grosenick just over a minute into the period.

The Heat kept the ice tilted in their favor for the majority of the period. They out shot San Jose 10-7. The Cuda’s Rudolfs Balcers had a late scoring chance off a nice cross ice pass from Marcus Sorensen but the puck bounced over Balcers stick to keep the lead 1-0 for Stockton at the second intermission.

Mangiapane capped off the scoring with his second goal of the game with an empty netter with 38 seconds left in the game. His 16th goal on the season was assisted by Ryan Lomberg.

San Jose–who outshot Stockton 10-4 in the third period–had a chance to tie the score just 30 seconds into the period when Tyler Wotherspoon went to the sin bin for hooking, but the Barracuda couldn’t create enough traffic in front of Gillies to get the equalizer.

“It’s just a shame to lose a game like that tonight,” said head coach Roy Sommer. “We just didn’t make a lot of plays, we didn’t get a lot of second chances.”

Gillies earned his seventh shutout of the season and second consecutive shutout, stopping all 32 San Jose shots. Grosenick took the hard luck loss with 20 saves on 21 shots.

“We gave him (Grosenick) no offensive support tonight”, said Sommer. “Which sucks for him. It’s too bad when’s he been in there, we haven’t had any goals for him.”

GAME NOTES: This was the first game back for San Jose defenseman Paul Martin who cleared the NHL waivers yesterday and was assigned to the Barracuda. Martin is now healthy after being hampered by a lower body injury at the beginning of the season.

“It felt good. It’s something to be said playing some games, it’s been a while, it’s fun,” said Martin after the game.

Both teams went 0/3 on the power play.

With the loss, San Jose dropped to the bottom of the Pacific Division standing with 36 points. San Jose is now 3-2 against Stockton on the season.

UP NEXT: San Jose makes it second trip of the month down to San Diego, where they play two games over the weekend versus the Gulls. First game will be on Friday night at 7 pm PT at the Valley View Casino Center.