Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Francis Perron continues to be the San Jose Barracuda’s best clutch player as he scored the game winning goal in overtime to defeat the Tucson Roadrunners 4-3 in a Pacific Division battle on Friday evening at SAP Center. The Cuda came back from a two-goal deficit and scored the game’s final three goals.

Alex True started a 2-on-1 odd man rush in the neutral zone. He fed a pass over to Perron at the blue line and skated in fired a wrist shot that went off the blocker of Roadrunners goalie Hunter Miska and into the bottom left corner of the net for his team-leading 12th goal on the season a the 1:48 mark of overtime.

“The D-guy (Tucson defender) made a great play actually, a great dive,” said Perron. “I wanted to pass it at first. Then I kinda hesitated after that. Saw the hole on the short side and it went in.”

Lane Pedersen drew first blood for the Roadrunners (15-8-2-1) on the power play. Tyler Steenbergen sent in a shot on goal that hit off Nick Merkley and onto the stick of Pedersen who buried the puck past Cuda goalie Joesef Korenar (11-1-1) for his seventh goal of the season at the 11:01 mark of the first period.

Dylan Gambrell took advantage of a turnover in the Tuscon defensive zone and skated in all alone on Roadrunners goalie Hunter Miska (7-4-4) and put a deke on Miska and scored into an open net to tie the game up at 1-1. The unassisted goal, Gambrell’s seventh of the season came at the 12:29 mark. He has now scored a point in four out of his last five games.

Hudson Fasching gave Tucson the lead just 12 seconds into the second period. Steenbergen fed a pass over to Fasching along the left boards and he skated behind the net and his wraparound backhander beat Korenar top-shelf for his ninth goal of the season.

Jordan Gross put Tuscon up by two goals, thanks to a fortunate bounce. Darik Angeli’s pass from the blue line hit a Cuda defender’s stick and bounced right over to a wide open Gross, who pinched in from the point, and snapped in a wrist shot past Kornear to the short side of the net for his second goal of the season at the 5:33 mark.

Jon Martin brought San Jose (16-4-1-3) right back into the game when he raced in from the left side of the blue to retrieve a loose puck sent in from the neutral zone by Francis Perron. Martin skated in with a backhand, forehand move that deflected off of Miska into the back of the bet for his third goal of the season at the 14:06 mark.

San Jose scored the equalizer when Keaton Middleton pounced on a loose puck and slammed it home for his third goal at the 6:40 mark of the third period. Maxim Letunov and Manny Wiederer were trying to jam in the puck in a mad scramble out in front of the net. The puck leaked out in between the face off circles where Middleton pinched in and cleaned up the rebound. Anti Suomela and Wiederer were credited with assists.

“It tells you something about this group in there when they’re done 3-2,” said head coach Roy Sommer. “Not a lot of teams come back going into the third (period) especially against a team like Tucson. To come back like that, it was fun.”

Merkley had a breakaway opportunity with under two minutes left in the third period after stealing the puck from Middleton at the Cuda blueline, but his chance was stoned away by Kornear.

Korenar made 20 saves on 23 shots to earn his 11th victory of the season. Miska, who had an outstanding game in his own right, made 29 saves on 33 shots in the tough luck loss.

GAME NOTES: San Jose was 0/3 on the power play. Tucson was 1/5.

Gambrell’s goal also sparked a flurry of teddy bears being tossed onto the ice as it was the annual Teddy Bear Toss Night at SAP Center. The hundreds of stuffed animals caused about an eight minute delay as the team and it’s staff helped put them in bags and get them off the ice so the game could resume.

“We’ve had that game in juniors and college”, said Gambrell. “That was the first time I got that one so it was pretty exciting.”

San Jose currently has the best home winning percentage in the AHL with a record of 9-1-0-1.

Perron now has scored a point in 10 of his last 12 games including three multi-point games over that stretch.

The announced attendance was 4,455.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda and Roadrunners go back at it again on Saturday, Dec. 22 at 6:00 pm at SAP Center.