Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — The Stockton Heat (21-16-2-3) enacted revenge against the San Jose Barracuda (21-18-1-2) after suffering a defeat in their own building 24 hours earlier, thanks to a rookie goaltender, earning his first professional victory in a 4-2 victory on Friday evening at the SAP Center. 

Stockton’s Tyler Parsons (1-1-0) making only his second start of the season, played on top of his head on Friday night stymieing a Barracuda attack that put 34 shots on goal. His outstanding play in the net frustrated San Jose throughout the night.

Both teams traded chances in the first period, but neither team could get the puck in the back of the net, thanks to great goaltending by both San Jose’s Troy Groesnick (5-8-2) and Parsons. Parsons stopped four scoring chances early in the period by the Barracuda while Grosenick stoned a one-on-one opportunity by Oleg Yuvenko five minutes into the game. The best scoring chance for the Barracuda came with a minute left when defenseman Jacob Middleton sent a shot off the boards that floated out in front of the crease past Parsons but no one in a teal jersey was able to get their stick in to tap home the puck into an empty net.

“I thought we had opportunities, their goalie was good,” head coach Roy Sommer said about Parsons’ play.

Austin Carrol broke the deadlock just a 1:07 into the second period when he skated in from the right point, made a maneuver around defenseman Paul Martin to skate in all alone on Grosenick and was able to put a nice backhander into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead. It was Carrol’s third goal of the season. Morgan Klimchuk and Rasmus Andersson received assists on the goal.

Julius Bergman tied the game up on the power play when he received a feed from Calvan Fitzgerald and was able to skate in from the right point and rifle a shot past Parsons who was screened out in front by Barracuda forward Alex True. Bergman’s sixth goal on the season came at the 7:31 mark. Adam Helewka received the secondary assist.

“We’re just trying to get pucks to the net,” said defenseman Calvan Fitzgerald on the blue liners contributing more on offense. “We’re just trying to create more offense as much as we can.”

Before the fans could sit down after Bergman’s goal, Stockton regained the lead when a bad turnover by Barracuda forward Emerson Clark led to Stockton’s Rod Pelley finding a wide open Emile Poirier at the blue line and he was able to skate in on a breakaway and sneak the puck past Groesenick for his fourth goal of the season just 66 seconds later.

The Cuda almost tied it up with under 30 seconds left in the period when Helewka skated in on Parson after taking a nice feed from Rudolfs Balcers on a 2-on-1 chance. Helewka’s backhand attempt was stopped by Parsons and the rebound was cleared away by the Stockton defense. San Jose out shot Stockton 13-11 in the 2nd period.

Grosenick kept the Barracuda in the game to start the third period as he was able to stop a Spencer Foo shorthanded breakaway attempt and a few minutes later a 3-on-1 where he was able to rob back to back point blank chances by the Heat.

“It’s not really fair to him, he’s been playing great.” said captain John McCarthy on the hard luck season for Grosenick. “It would’ve been great to get him a win tonight. He kept us in it till the end. It’s unfortunate, but we do recognize that he’s been playing very well (for us).”

Stockton extended their lead at the 15:56 mark when Carrol skated in from the right boards and sent a shot toward the net that was initially saved by Grosenick. but the rebound trickled out to a crashing Morgan Klimchauk who tapped home his 13th goal of the season for a 3-1 lead. Carrol slammed awkwardly into the boards as a result of the play, got hurt, but was able to walk off the ice back into the locker room under his own power.

Marek Hrivik completed the scoring for Stockton with under two minutes left when the Barracuda pulled Grosenick for an extra attacker and he was able to knock home his 11th goal of the season short handed into an empty net.

San Jose’s McCarthy was able to tip home a Fitzgerald shot from the point on the power play with 43 seconds left for his sixth goal of the season. However, it was too little too late for the Barracuda’s comeback attempt.

Parsons made 32 saves on 34 shots for the victory, while Grosenick made 30 saves on 33 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose went 2/4 on the power play while Stockton 0/1.

Even there were many scrums after the whistle, there were no official fights between the teams tonight unlike the game in Stockton that featured four of them.

With the win, Stockton leap frogs over San Jose to sixth place in the Pacific Division with 47 points. The Cuda are currently in seventh with 45 points.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda will face the Pacific Division leading Tuscon Roadrunners on Monday evening at SAP Center at 7 pm PT.