Photo courtesy of San Jose Barracuda Twitter. Patrick Sieloff battles for the puck.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN JOSE- Continuing their home stand the Barracuda dropped another one in front of their fans this time against the Coachella Valley Firebird by a final of 4-0.

The Barracuda got off to a good start in the game with a couple good chances against Coachella Valley goalie Christopher Gibson. However the goalie held his own long enough for the Firebirds to get his team in the game.

With the momentum carrying the other way 16:49 into the first period Ville Petman scored his seventh goal of the season to get the Firebirds on the board. Both Austin Poganski and Carsen Twarynski assisted on the goal.

That ended up being all the scoring in the first with the shots finishing at the end of the first in favor of Coachella Valley 16-8.

The second period got off to a quiet start with the first major play of the period coming 10:42 in when Alexander True took a cross-checking penalty.

San Jose was given a great opportunity though when John Hayden took a delay of game penalty for batting the puck with his hand on the face-off. Giving the Barracuda a five-on-three.

Coachella’s penalty kill rose to the challenge and killed off what could have been a huge momentum swing for San Jose.

Then in the dying moments of the period John Hayden made up for his penalty by scoring his tenth goal of the season with both Kole Lind and Alexander True assisting on the play.

The score at the end of the second finished 2-0 in favor of the Firebirds with the shots also in favor of Coachella Valley at 28-18.

Heading into the third the Barracuda needed a big push on offense but got off to a rough start as just over five minutes in Danil Gushchin took a slashing penalty.

San Jose’s penalty kill also was just as strong on the night killing off the penalty and every other penalty they took on the night.

With the score still close the Barracuda pulled Aaron Dell to try to equalize the score.

Jesper Froden had other plans though as he scored on the empty net to get his 15th goal of the season. Tye Kartye got the lone assist on the goal.

San Jose pulled Dell again and this time Hayden scored on the unguarded cage getting his second goal on the night. Both True and Lind assisted on the goal.

The shots at the end of the game favored the Firebirds 37-24.

The three stars of the game were: 1st: Ville Petman 2nd: Christopher Gibson 3rd: Aaron Dell

“I liked our start tonight I thought we came out we were ready to play. Took some penalties and they got a little momentum they found their game a little bit and I felt they controlled the play after that,” Barracuda head coach John McCarthy commented after the game.

The Barracuda’s next game will be at home tomorrow at 3 p.m. against these same Firebirds.