The San Jose Barracuda left winger Joachim Blichfeld (86) winds up for a shot against the Texas Stars goaltender Adam Scheel (31) at Solar4America Ice in San Jose on Wed Apr 14, 2021 (@ sjbarracuda photo)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif-Maxim Letunov scored two goals, including the eventual game winner halfway through the third period as the San Jose Barracuda beat the Texas Stars 4-2 on Wednesday evening at Solar4America Ice.

Despite the game being in Silicon Valley, the Barracuda were the away team as this was the makeup game from 2/16/21 that was postponed due to the huge snow storm the region suffered through. San Jose now has 26 points but currently sit in fifth place in the Pacific Division with a winning percentage of .520. Colorado is just three-hundredth of percentage points ahead in fourth place at .523.

Texas (12-13-2-0) drew first blood under a minute left in the first period. Seconds after the penalty to Alex True for cross-checking ended, Adam Mashcherin sent a cross ice pass over to Jerad Rosburg who fired a wrist shot into the top corner short-side beating ‘Cuda goalie Sam Harvey for his first goal of the season at the 19:38 mark.

It was Rosburg’s second career AHL Goal as the Stars outshot the ‘Cuda 14-9 after the opening 20 minutes.

San Jose (10-9-4-2) scored the equalizer near the halfway mark of the second period seconds after their power play had just ended. Brandon Coe found an open Ivan Chekhovich in the left slot and the Russian sniper buried a wrist shot past Stars goalie Adam Scheel for his first goal of the season since coming back from the KHL to play for the ‘Cuda at the 9:05 mark.

It was Chekhovich’s first goal since March 10, 2020 against the Stockton Heat. That game was the last game played before the Covid-19 pandemic cancelled the rest of the AHL season.

The Barracuda gained its first lead of the game just over two minutes later. Sasha Chmelevski sent a backhand pass out of his own zone that got behind Stars defenseman Dawson Barteaux and sprung Joachim Blichfeld on a breakaway. Blichfeld skated in and beat Scheel with a wrist shot to the far side for his 11th goal of the season at the 11:25 mark.

Blichfeld snapped a seven-game goalless draught.

Texas tied up the game on a 5-on-3 power play opportunity late in the middle frame. Anthony Louis found Ben Gleason down in the right slot. Gleason paused and then lasered a wrist shot top-shelf into the right corner for his second goal of the season at the 16:27 mark.

Despite San Jose having a huge shot advantage over Texas in the middle frame (21-9), they headed into the second intermission deadlocked at 2-2.

Letunov scored his eighth goal of the season, which proved to be the game winner when Chekhovich found Letunov open in between the faceoff circles. Letunov one-timed a wrist shot past Scheel at the 10:48 mark.

Letunov iced the game for the ‘Cuda with 20 seconds left in the game with an empty netter. He intercepted a pass by Gleason and fired it down the ice from his own zone for his second goal of the game and ninth of the season. He has three goals in his last two games.

Harvey finished the game stopping 29 of the 31 shots he faced to earn the victory. Scheel made 36 saves on 40 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose went 0-for-4 on the power play. Texas was 1-for-6.

Texas is now 6-1-1 after leading after the first period.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Blichfeld 2) Chekhovich 3) Scheel

UP NEXT: Both teams continue its four-game series on Friday 4/16 at 6:00pm at Solar4America Ice.