Danil Gushchin (#75) celebrates his goal with his San Jose Barracuda teammates against the Henderson Silver Knights at Tech CU Arena on Wednesday MAR 15, 2023. (San Jose Barracuda)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Barracuda scored the final four goals of the game as they cruised to a 6-2 victory over the Henderson Silver Knights on Wednesday morning at Tech CU Arena.

San Jose has won three out of its past four games and sit one point behind the Tucson Roadrunners (56 points) for 7th place and the final playoff spot in the Pacific Division. Henderson have lost four games in a row and currently sit in the 9th place in the Pacific Division.

San Jose (25-28-1-4-55 points) had the drew first blood 27 seconds into the game with an even strength goal. Artemi Kniazev centered a pass in front of the crease to Ozzie Wiesblatt who tucked home the puck from point blank range past Silver Knight’s goalie Ishiah Saville for his third goal of the season.

Henderson (22-32-0-5-49 points) evened the score seconds after their power play expired. Brandon Bisson cleaned up his own rebound from the left slot as he beat ‘Cuda goalie Aaron Dell with a wrist shot top shelf for his 11th goal of the season at the 4:32 mark.

The Silver Knights gained its first lead of the game thanks to a giveaway by the ‘Cuda behind their own net. Sakari Manninen centered the puck from behind the net to Brayden Pachal who blasted a one-timer past Dell for his third goal of the season at the 13:48 mark.

San Jose evened the score late in the opening frame with the man advantage. Martin Kaut began what was a tic-tac-toe type of goal when he sent the puck down low to Kyle Criscuolo, who then fed a pass through the crease over to Andrew Agozzino and the ‘Cuda captain finished off the play as he buried the puck into an open net for his team leading 23rd goal of the season at the 19:29 mark.

The Barracuda regained the lead late in the middle frame. Kniazev intercepted a clearing attempt by Henderson, then spotted Martin Kaut opened on the right wing and Kaut drilled a wrist shot past Saville for his eighth goal of the season at the 18:01 mark.

San Jose scored an insurance goal with its second power play tally of the game. Danil Gushchin picked up a loose puck near the blueline from a scrum along the boards. Gushchin skated in and beat Saville through the five-hole with a wrist shot for his 14th goal of the season just 51 seconds into the third period.

Kniazev picked up his third point of the game with the secondary assist on Gushchin’s goal.

The ‘Cuda put the game away with its third unanswered goal 74 seconds later. A Kaut breakaway attempt was cleaned up by Criscuolo as he trailed the play for his 15th goal of the season.

Agozzino finished off the scoring with his second goal of the game, a short-handed empty netter with 3:59 remaining in the final stanza when Henderson pulled Saville for an extra attacker with the mad advantage.

Dell finished the afternoon stopping 21 of the 23 shots he faced to earn the victory. Saville made 28 saves on 33 shots in the losing effort.

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

The Barracuda hosted its annual ‘Cuda Classroom Day where kids from the local elementary schools were in attendance.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Kaut 2) Kniazev 3) Agozzino

San Jose finished 5-1-0-1 against Henderson in the season series. They finished 1-7-0-0 last season against the Silver Knights.

UP NEXT: San Jose hosts the Texas Stars for a two-game weekend series starting on Friday 3/17 at 7:00pm at Tech CU Arena.