The San Jose Barracuda forward Jacob McGrew tries to stay ahead in the chase for the puck at Solar4America Ice in San Jose against the Texas Stars on Tue Apr 13, 2021 (@ sjbarracuda photo)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif- The Texas Stars scored four goals in the first period as they dominated the San Jose Barracuda in a 7-2 victory on Tuesday evening at Solar4America Ice as the teams began a four-game series.

The Stars are currently 2-4 on their eight-game roadtrip. San Jose has lost seven of its past 10 games.

Texas (12-12-2-0) opened up the scoring halfway through the opening 20 minutes. Riley Damiani skated out from behind the net and centered a backdoor pass out to Nick Baptisite who tapped home the puck right in front of the crease past ‘Cuda goalie Alexei Melnichuk for his 11th goal of the season at the 10:50 mark.

The Stars doubled its lead five minutes later. A turnover at the red line led to Cole Schneider centering a pass to a trailing Anthony Louis who buried a wrist shot past Melnichuk for his seventh goal of the season at the 15:51 mark.

Texas poured on the gas with two goals in 29 seconds late in the first period. First, a battle along the right boards led to the puck leaking out to the middle where Ben Gleason fired a wrist shot off of Melnichuk as the puck rolled into the back of the net for a power play goal, Gleason’s second goal of the season at the 18:37 mark.

The Stars capitalized on another ‘Cuda turnover for its fourth goal of the period. Jake Slaker came in on a two-on-one odd man rush and sent a rink wide pass over to Riley Tufte who finished off the play with third goal of the season at the 19:06 mark.

San Jose (9-9-4-2) regrouped and took advantage of a five-on-three power play opportunity in the first two and a half minutes of the second period.

A shot from the right wing by Joachim Blichfeld caromed off the back boards to the left slot where Robbie Russo quickly fired the puck past Stars’ goalie Adam Scheel for his second goal of the season at the 2:52 mark.

The Barracuda struck again on the power play just under two minute later to cut the Stars lead in half. Alex True centered a pass from behind the Stars net out to the right slot where Maxim Letunov’s one-timer trickled past Scheel for his seventh goal of the season at the 4:11 mark.

Texas regained a three-goal lead with its second power play goal of the game. Slaker made a back pass over to Louis and he sent a cross ice pass over to Adam Mashcherin who fired a shot off the near post and into the back of the net for his 14th goal of the season at the 9:35 mark.

The Stars went back up by a four-goal cushion as Baptiste drew three ‘Cuda defenders as he entered San Jose’s zone. The puck squirted out to a trailing Josh Melnick who skated in and beat Melnichuk with a backhander for his sixth goal of the season at the 17:07 mark.

Mashcherin closed out the scoring with his second goal of the game on the power play. Thomas Harley sent a pass over tp Mashcherin and he snapped home a wrist shot past Melnichuk for his 15th goal of the season at the 18:02 mark.

Mashcherin is second in the AHL goals, one behind Bakersfield’s Cooper Marody.

Scheel finished the game with 30 saves on 32 shots to earn the victory. Melnichuk made 20 saves on 27 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose went 2-for-3 on the power play. Texas was 3-for-4. They entered the game with only one power play goal in their last 36 chances.

The loss was the first for the Barracuda in regulation at home this season. The loss also snapped a seven-game point streak at home.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Mashcherin 2) Louis 3) Slaker

UP NEXT: The same two teams go back at on Wednesday 4/14 at 5:00pm at Solar4America Ice.