San Jose Barracuda goaltender Josef Kornear (32) looks behind him as the San Diego Gulls forward Alex Dostie (10) battles for the puck at FivePoint Arena in Irvine on Tue Jan 19, 2021 (@sjbarracuda photo)

by Marko Ukalovic

IRVINE, Calif-It had been over 10 months since the San Jose Barracuda were in a hockey rink.

The ‘Cuda were dominated by their Pacific Division rival the San Diego Gulls 5-1 in both team’s pre-seasoner opener on Monday evening at FivePoint Arena.

San Diego wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. Just over five minutes into the action, with the Gulls already on the game’s first power play, Andrew Agozzino converted a backdoor pass from Trevor Zegras, to give San Diego an early 1-0 advantage.

San Jose responded quickly, evening the score at one just 1:37 later as a shot from the point by Joakim Blichfeld snuck through traffic and past Gulls netminder Lukas Dostal.

With just over a minute remaining in the game’s opening period, San Diego retook the lead after a long shift in the offensive zone. Andrew Poturalski collected a bouncing puck along the wall just in front of the San Jose bench, curled towards the middle of the ice and fired a low shot off of his linemate, Benoit-Olivier Groulx and past Josef Korenar. Chase De Leo also collected an assist on the go-ahead goal as the Gulls took a 2-1 lead into first intermission.

Sam Carrick doubled the Gulls lead just two minutes into the second period as he capitalized on a San Jose turnover. As the Barracuda attempted to break out of their own zone, San Jose forward Vlad Kotkov was intercepted by Carrick, who one-timed the errant pass by Korenar to give the Gulls a 3-1 lead at the 2:11 mark of the middle frame.

Another power-play opportunity halfway through the second period, allowed the Gulls to quickly convert once again and extend the lead. Once again, Zegras found Agozzino uncovered on the backdoor but this time the veteran winger made an extra pass to Carrick, who slammed home his second goal of the game, putting San Diego ahead 4-1 with 10:39 left in the second period.

The Gulls capped the offensive onslaught just two minutes later as Jack Kopacka raced down left wing and caught Korenar by surprise, firing a quick wrist shot just under the crossbar, extending the Gulls advantage to four.

The teams traded chances in the third period with neither side finding the back of the net.

Dostal, appearing in his first game as a member of the Gulls, made 28 saves to earn the win.

UP NEXT: San Jose concludes its tow-game series with San Diego on Thursday 1/21 at 6:00pm at FivePoint Arena.