The San Jose Barracuda and San Diego Gulls battled it out on the ice at FivePoint Arena in Irvine and it wasn’t even close as the Barracuda lose it 7-3 on Sat Apr 3, 2021 (@ sjbarracuda photo)

by Marko Ukalovic

IRVINE, Calif—The San Diego Gulls scored four goals in the third period to break open a tight game in a 7-3 victory over the San Jose Barracuda on Saturday evening at FivePoint Arena.

The win was the first one in regulation for the Gulls over the Barracuda this season. They have won six games in a row and went undefeated on its four-game homestand. The ‘Cuda have lost four of its past five games.

San Jose (7-7-4-1) drew first blood halfway through the first period. Brinson Pasichnuk’s shot from the left point was initially saved by Gulls goaile Olle Eriksson-Ek but the puck leaked out to the right and Maxim Letunov cleaned up the rebound for his third goal of the season at the 9:26 mark.

It was Pasichnuk’s first assist in his last 11 games.

San Diego (15-10-0-0) tied it at 1-1 late in the opening 20 minutes. ‘Cuda goalie Josef Korenar made a stop on a point blank shot from Matt Lorito. The rebound found its way behind the net where Hunter Drew centered the puck back out front to Lorito, who made good on his second attempt with a wrist shot into an empty net for his third goal of the season at the 17:29 mark.

San Jose regained the lead in the second period while short-handed. Alex True created a two-on-one odd man rush when he stripped the puck off of Kodie Curran at the Gulls blue line. True gave it up to Lean Bergmann who skated in all alone on Eriksson before backhanding a cross ice pass back to True for an easy tap in into the back of the net. True’s seventh goal of the season came at the 7:49 mark.

Bergmann, who has yet to score a goal for San Jose this season, finished with a two-point game.

The Gulls scored the equalizer after a miscue by three ‘Cuda players in its own zone. The puck leaked out to a wide open Sam Carrick who quickly made a deke before sliding the puck underneath Korenar for his 12th goal of the season at the 12:15 mark.

San Diego gained its first lead of the game late in the middle frame on the power play. Vinni Lettieri sent a cross ice pass over to Chase De Leo who buried a one-timer from close range past Korenar for his ninth goal of the season at the 19:38 mark.

The Gulls scored an insurance goal early to start the third period. Benoit-Oliver Groulx sent a pass back up to the point where Keegan Lowe fired a slapshot off the glove of Korenar for his second goal of the season at the 1:39 mark.

San Diego put the game away with two power play goals in under four minutes as San Jose was called for three minor penalties in a six minute span.

Curran redeemed himself when he snapped home a wrist shot top-shelf past Korenar for his fouth goal of the season and second power play goal for San Diego at the 11:54 mark.

Then Jacob Perreault found Andrew Agozzino camped out all alone along the right post with a backdoor pass and Agozzino tapped it home for San Diego’s third power play goal of the game and his seventh of the season at the 15:38 mark.

Perreault finished off the scoring for the Gulls when his backhander from a tough angle hit off the post past Korenar for his second goal of the season at the 18:35 mark.

San Jose scored the game’s final goal with 24 seconds left when Sasha Chmelevski found Joel Kellman backdoor at the left post for an easy tap in goal, Kellman’s third goal of the season.

Eriksson-Ek finished the game with 31 saves on 34 shots to earn the vicotry. Korenar made 21 saves on 28 shots in suffering his first regulation loss of the season.

GAME NOTES: San Jose went 0-for-4 on the power play. San Diego was 3-for-6.

San Diego have scored seven goals in back-to-back games.

De Leo and Andrew Poturalski each had two assists on the night.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) De Leo 2) Perreault 3) Lowe

UP NEXT: The Barracuda return home to host the Henderson Silver Knights for a two-games series on Tuesday 4/6 at 5:00pm at Solar4America Ice.