Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By: Ana Kieu

The San Jose Barracuda had hoped to snap a three-game skid and they did indeed do that Wednesday evening at the SAP Center with a 2-1 win over the Tuscon Roadrunners in a shootout.

The Barracuda (27-11-2-4) went with a starting lineup that featured the likes of Antti Suomela, Rourke Chartier, Francis Perron, Jake Middleton, Nick DeSimone and Antoine Bibeau. Meanwhile, the Roadrunners (24-15-4-2) decided on a starting lineup that showcased Giovanni Fiore, Emil Petersson, Jeremy Gregoire, Dakota Mermis, Jordan Gross and Adin Hill.

Only one thing was on the Barracuda’s mind tonight and that was to get back in the win column against a Pacific Division rival. Well, at least from the average fan’s perspective, anyways.

This was a low-scoring game, but the Barracuda was able to secure a win in the shootout. There was a decent amount of penalties, and of course, the scrums that occurred as a result. Anyways, the score was in a scoreless deadlock after the first period. San Jose held a 6-4 advantage in shots over Tucson at the end of 20 minutes. The deadlock remained in tact after the second period. The only difference was that San Jose led Tuscon in shots 28-13 at the end of 40 minutes.

The third period, however, was a back-and-forth affair. Sure, San Jose might’ve wished they had snatched the first lead (and goal) of the evening, but they managed to tie the score 1-1 and that was pretty much all that mattered. Tuscon finally got on the board when Gregoire scored his seventh goal of the season at the 18:41 mark of the third. Assists were handed to Pettersson and Robbie Russo. Just 1:04 later, San Jose got even with DeSimone’s ninth goal of the season, which was a power-play goal. Assists were credited by Suomela and Kyle Wood. DeSimone’s power-play goal happened following a Russo slashing penalty.

The score remained in a 1-1 deadlock after both teams played the mandatory three periods. San Jose led Tuscon in shots 35-23 at the end of the full 60 minutes.

As a result, it went into overtime, but neither team scored the go-ahead goal to pick up a win, so the final result was determined by a shootout. In the first round, neither Pettersson nor Chartier scored. In the second round, Lane Pederson was unable to score, but Alexander True managed to score. In the third round, Jordan Gross got the game-tying score, but the Barracuda broke through when Perron notched the game-tying score to lift his team to a 2-1 victory over Tuscon.

Bibeau earned the Barracuda victory by making 23 saves on 24 shots. Hill made 39 saves on 40 shots in a losing effort for the Roadrunners.

The Barracuda’s three stars of the game were Perron, DeSimone and Gregoire.

The Barracuda continue their homestand with the first of two home-and-home games against the rival San Diego Gulls (26-15-2-3) on Saturday afternoon at 1:05 pm PT.