Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Diego Gulls took advantage of a change of momentum late in the first period and never looked back as they trounced the San Jose Barracuda 8-3 on Saturday afternoon at SAP Center.

San Diego is currently 5-1 against San Jose this season. The win also gave the Gulls 60 points as they moved into a tie for second place with the Cuda in the Pacific Division.

San Diego (27-15-3-3) drew first blood on a five-on-three power play late in the first period. With both Jacob Middleton and Jon Martin both off for hooking, Ben Street sent a cross ice pass over to Sam Carrick, whose one-timer beat Cuda goalie Antoine Bibeau (11-7-5) for his 23rd goal of the season at the 17:32 mark. Trevor Murphy received the secondary assist.

San Diego doubled their lead just seconds after their second power play ended. Carrick sent a shot on net that deflected off Chase De Leo for his 16th goal of the season at the 19:20 mark. Keifer Sherwood received the secondary assist.

Despite controlling the majority of the play in the opening frame and out shooting San Diego 16-10, San Jose (27-12-2-4) limped in to the first intermission down by two goals.

Gulls goalie Jeff Glass (8-6-2) was busy in the first period making key saves including one from point-blank range that kept the Cuda off the scoreboard.

San Diego kept their momentum going to start the second period. Ben Thompson fed a pass over to Murphy who skated across the slot past John McCarthy and Middleton and snapped a wrist shot past Bibeau for his eight goal of the season at the 3:17 mark.

Sam Steel picked up a loose puck along the boards and skated in and beat Bibeau through the five-hole for a 4-0 lead. The rookie forward’s goal was his 13th of the season at the 9:03 mark. Thomson and

San Jose finally got on the scoreboard just over a minute later. Alex True punched in a rebound off a Martin shot for his co-team leading 15th goal of the season at the 10:15 mark. Kyle Wood was credited with the secondary assist.

Carrick scored his second goal of the contest and 24th of the season on the power play when he took off on a breakaway and split two Cuda defenders to wrist one past Bibeau at the 11:05 mark.

Steel scored his second goal and 14th goal of the season on a two-on-one odd man rush with Korbinian Holzer. Steel skated in and blasted a shot that rung off the post into the back of the net for a 6-1 lead at the 15:24 mark. Kevin Roy was credited with the secondary assist.

San Diego dominated the third period. Corey Tropp scored when he was able to bang in his own rebound past Josef Korenar, who replaced Bibeau to start the third period, for his 16th goal of the season at the 12:29 mark. Jack Kopacka and Kalle Kossila received assists.

The Gulls continued their success on the power play. Roy sent a pass over to Alex Dostie and he wristed a shot into the back of the net for his second goal of the season at the 13:16 mark.

Rourke Chartier scored a goal on the power play in garbage time. Francis Perron sent a pass over to Chartier, who buried it past Glass for his fifth goal of the season at the 14:38 mark.

Keaton Middleton sent a shot from the blue line that sneaked past Glass over his right shoulder into the back of the net. The unassisted goal was Middleton’s sixth goal of the season at the 16:58 mark.

Glass was huge between the pipes for San Diego stopping 40 of the 43 shots he faced to earn his eight victory. Bibeau, who made his third consecutive start, made 14 saves on 20 after 40 minutes shots in suffering the defeat. Korenar made nine saves on 11 shots in mop up duty.

GAME NOTES: San Jose was 1/7 on the power play. San Diego was 3/6.

Vincent Praplan was back in the line up after missing the past 12 games with an injury.

TJ Hensick made his debut with the Barracuda. The veteran of 630 AHL games was signed back on February 12th.

The announced attendance was 2,859.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda take on the Gulls on Monday 2/18 at 1:15 pm at SAP Center.