Travis Barron brawls with Jesper Weatherby at Tech CU Arena on Saturday OCT 29, 2022. (San Jose Barracuda)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — It was not a good weekend for the San Jose Barracuda.

The Tucson Roadrunners outlasted Team Teal in a 4-3 shootout win on Saturday afternoon at Tech CU Arena.

San Jose has lost three games in a row. Tuscon has won five out its first six games to start the season.

In a game chippy game that featured a full 5-on-5-line brawl in the middle of ice during the opening faceoff, the two Pacific Division rivals had many skirmishes in a game that went back and forth.

Tucson (5-1-0-0) scored the game’s two opening goals a 1:26 apart halfway through the opening 20 minutes. Michael Carcone centered a pass out in front of the crease where Nathan Smith beat ‘Cuda goalie Eetu Makiniemi with a wrist shot for his first goal of the season at the 10:00 mark.

Then Carcone set up Jean-Sebastian Dea in front of the net and Dea jammed in his own rebound for his third goal of the season at the 11:26 mark.

Tucson dominated the play in the first period as the outshot San Jose 16-5.

San Jose (4-2-0-1) began its comeback early in the second period. Daniel Gushchin received the puck from Tristan Robins from his own blue line. Gushchin skated into the Roadrunner’s zone and fired a wrist shot that hit underneath the crossbar and into the back of the net past Roadrunner’s goalie Jon Gillies for his first goal of the season at the 2:13 mark.

Ryan Merkley found Scott Reedy in the slot and last season’s goal leader for the ‘Cuda blasted a one-timer past Gillies for his second goal of the season at the 10:11 of the mark.

The Barracuda scored its third unanswered goal of the period on the power play. A shot from the left slot by Andrew Agozzino was kicked out by Gillies but William Eklund cleaned up the rebound with a backhander for his second goal of the season at the 16:37 mark.

San Jose’s lead was short-lived as Tucson evened the game 39 seconds later. Dea set up Carcone in between the faceoff circles and one-timed a wrist shot into an open net for his third goal of the season at the 17:16 mark.

Both teams hunkered down in the third period and overtime to send the game to the shootout.

In the shootout, Adam Cracknell scored the only goal for the game winner.

Gillies made 38 saves on 41 shots and stopped all three attempts in the shootout to earn the victory. Makiniemi made 29 saves on 32 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 1-for-5 on the power play. Tucson was 0-for-4.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Cracknell 2) Agozzino 3) Ben McCartney

UP NEXT: San Jose travels north of the border for a two-games series with Calgary Wranglers on Sunday 11/6 at 5:00pm at Stampede Corral.