The San Jose Barracuda drop the first of two games on Wed Jan 11, 2022 against the Tucson Roadrunners at the SAP Center in San Jose on Wed Jan 11, 2022 (image by the San Jose Barracuda)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — When you don’t play for a full 60 minutes, it usually comes back to bite you.

The Tucson Roadrunners scored three unanswered goals in the third period for a 4-3 comeback victory on Wednesday evening at SAP Center.

San Jose have lost two of its past three games. Tucson snapped its three-game losing streak.

The game marked the return for former Barracuda goalie Josef Korenar who played in his first game at The Tank in a visiting uniform with the Roadrunners.

It also marked the first game back for Scott Reedy and Jayden Halbgewachs for San Jose. They had been up with the Sharks the past week. They were on a line with John Leonard put together by ‘Cuda head coach Roy Sommer.

San Jose (12-16-1-0) drew first blood early in the first period. Jake McGrew sent a puck on net that bounced out in front of the crease. Kyle Topping’s chance was stopped by Korenar but Zachary Gallant sneaked in and chipped the puck just underneath the crossbar for his first goal of the season at the 4:12 mark.

It was Gallant’s second career AHL and his first in 42 games when he scored his first back on March 6th, 2021, which also happens to be his birthday.

Tucson (12-11-2-1) answered back with a power play goal late in the opening frame. Matias Maccelli sent a pass over to Jen Jenik in the right slot. Jenik snapped home a wrist shot past ‘Cuda goalie Alexei Melnichuk for his seventh goal of the season at the 16:16 mark.

The Barracuda regained the lead with 26 seconds left in the first period. After a battle along the corner boards, Kyle Topping fed a pass back to the point Artemi Kniazev. The 20-year defenseman skated in, made a move at the left faceoff circle and fired a wrist shot to the far side for his career AHL goal.

“I saw the guy dropping (down) on me (I got) some open ice and took the shot,” said Kniazev. “Obviously it’s nice to score my first pro goal but it didn’t help to win the game, so it means nothing.

Things became chippy in the second period. There were two fights in a span of less than two minutes. After the second fight between Patrick Holway and Blake Speers, both teams begin to push and shove each other in the neutral zone near the teams’ benches long after the whistle had blown.

Tucson evened the game with seven minutes left in third period. Hudson Fasching made a nice a move around a ‘Cuda defender at the left point, skated in and centered a backhand pass over to Maccelli who buried a one-time from point-blank range for his ninth goal of the season.

The Roadrunners gained its first lead 68 seconds later. Maccelli sent a back pass to Cameron Hebig who beat Melnichuk to the short side for his sixth goal of the season at the 14:08 mark.

“We can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot,” Sommer said. “You’re not going to keep coming back from these all the time. We had played up to that point, pretty good. Again, we gave up too much trying to protect the lead.”

Tucson sealed the game with their second power play goal with 1:23 left in the third period. Hudsom Elyniuk fed a pass over to Speers who buried a wrist shot to the short side past Melnichuk for his second goal of the season.

San Jose made it a one-goal game with 22 seconds left when Reedy scored his team-leading 15th goal of the season. Reedy cleaned up the rebound off a shot from the point by Nick Cicek.

Korenar finished the game stopping 20 of the 23 shots he faced to come back to haunt his old team in earning the victory. Melnichuk (7-7-0) made 18 saves on 22 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 0-for-4 on the power play. Tucson was 2-for-4.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Maccello 2) Kniazev 3) Jenik

San Jose is 16-12-3-2 all time against Tucson, including 9-6-1-1 on home ice.

Tucson has four of its last five games on the road.

UP NEXT: San Jose and Tucson conclude their two-games series on Friday 1/14 at 7:00pm at SAP Center.