Photo credit: Forward Joel Kellman (46) of the San Jose Barracuda looks more like he’s putting a tackle on one of the Henderson Silver Knights players during Sat Mar 20, 2021 game in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena (@sjbarracuda photo)

By Marko Ukalovic

The Henderson Silver Knights scored four unanswered goals in the final 27 minutes of the game to defeat the San Jose Barracuda 5-2 on Saturday afternoon at Orleans Arena.

The Silver Knights have won seven of its past eight games. The Barracuda have lost four of its past five games.

Henderson (12-2-0-0) drew first blood in the opening minute of the first period. With Nick DeSimone in the sinbin for holding just 30 seconds into the game, the Silver Knights scored on its first power play opportunity.

Jack Dugan sent a pass back to Dylan Sikura on the right wing and Sikura snapped home a wrist shot top-shelf to the short side of ‘Cuda starting goalie Alexei Melnichuk for his team-leading seventh goal of the season at the 1:09 mark.

San Jose (6-5-4-0) regrouped and scored the equalizer five minutes later. The Russian connection of Ivan Chekhovich and Maxim Letunov helped get the ‘Cuda on the board. Chekhovich, who made his San Jose debut after returning from playing in the KHL, found Letunov in between the faceoff circles and Letunov buried a wrist shot top-shelf past Silver Knights goalie Logan Thompson for his second goal of the season at the 5:35 mark.

The Barracuda gained the lead with one-tenth of a second left in the opening 20 minutes. A turnover by a Silver Knights defender from behind his own net led to a mad scramble in front of the net where Alex True was able to jam home the puck past Thompson for his fifth goal of the season. Captain Jacob Magna and Noah Gregor received assists.

True extended his point streak to five games and has points in six of his last seven games.

Henderson proved why they are one of the best teams of the AHL in the second period. Coming into the game they were a +11 and scored two goals to take control of the game.

Sikura found Danny O’Regan in the slot and the former San Jose Sharks’ fifth round draft pick rifled a wrist shot short-side over the left shoulder of Melnichuk for his fourth goal of the season at the 12:53 mark. O’Regan has goals in back-to-back games.

The Silver Knights regained the lead for good when Patrick Brown fed a pass over to Paul Cotter and he fired a wrist shot that beat Melnichuk top-shelf for his third goal of the season at the 15:36 mark.

Melnichuk left the game after the second period with an apparent lower body injury he suffered in the second period. He was replaced with Zachary Sawchenko to start the third period.

Henderson scored an insurance goal at the 13:11 mark of the third period. Tyrell Goulbourne’s shot on goal wasn’t controlled by Sawchenko and Jake Leschyshyn cashed in the rebound for his second goal of the season.

Ben Jones iced the game and finished off the scoring for Henderson with an empty net goal at the 17:21 mark.

Thompson had an impressive game, stopping 39 of the 41 shots to earn the victory. Melnichuk made 22 saves on 25 shots in the losing effort. Sawchenko, who had his first action in the AHL since March 6, 2020, stopped nine of the 10 shots he faced in the third period.

GAME NOTES: San Jose was 0-for-3 on the power play. Henderson went 1-for-2.

Henderson is currently undefeated at home with a 6-0 record.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Tomas Jurco 2) O’Regan 3) Cotter

UP NEXT: The Barracuda and Silver Knights conclude their series on Sunday, March 21 at 12 pm PST.