Coachella Valley’s Max McCormick and Kole Lind celebrate a goal during their team’s 4-3 win over the San Jose Barracuda at Acrisure Arena on Monday APR 3, 2023. (Coachella Valley Firebirds)

by Marko Ukalovic

Cameron Hughes had the game winning goal in the fourth round of the shootout as the Coachella Valley Firebirds defeated the San Jose Barracuda 4-3 on Monday evening at Acrisure Arena.

Coachella Valley won all eight games against San Jose this season as the Barracuda went 0-5-1-2 against the Seattle Kraken’s AHL affiliate in ’22-’23. San Jose collected a point despite the loss and now trail the Tuscon Roadrunners by five points with five games remaining in the regular season. The Firebirds regained sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division with a one-point lead of the Calgary Wranglers.

It was San Jose’s best effort against Coachella Valley this season as the game went back and forth during the 60 minutes of regulation.

The opening 20 minutes featured a scoreless period. The Firebirds had two power play opportunities but weren’t able to capitalize on either chance as the Barracuda’s penalty kill kept Coachella Valley off the scoreboard. San Jose was only to generate four shots in the period.

Coachella Valley (46-14-4-2-98 points) drew first blood on the power play early in the second period. Max McCormick set up Kole Lind in the slot and Lind buried a wrist shot past ‘Cuda goalie Aaron Dell for his team leading 29th goal of the season at the 3:45 mark.

San Jose (28-33-1-5-62 points) responded with an even strength just under three minutes later. Nathan Burke led a two-on-one odd man rush with Kyle Criscuolo inside the Firebirds zone. Criscuolo, who had scored his first NHL goal with the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night, made a move to the inside before firing a wrist shot past Firebirds goalie Chris Driedger for his 16th goal of the season at the 6:54 mark.

The Barracuda gained its first lead 35 seconds later. Adam Raska fed a pass over to Danil Gushchin, who also scored his first NHL goal with the Sharks two days ago against the Arizona Coyotes, made a similar move to Criscuolo’s going inside the middle as he beat Driedger with a wrist shot for his 17th goal of the season.

The Firebirds took advantage of their sixth power play in the game as they scored the equalizer early in the third period. Ryker Evans set up Hughes 18th goal of the season at the 2:45 mark.

Carsen Twarynski gave the Firebirds a 3-2 lead when he was able to poke the past Dell after he tried wrapping around the puck from behind the net for his 17th goal of the season at the 14:36 mark.

Andrew Agozzino scored the equalizer while making history with 19 second remaining in the period. With Dell pulled for an extra attacker a shot from the point by Shakir Mukhamadullin caromed off the boards and the ‘Cuda captain batted the puck out of the air with a backhander for his team leading 25th goal of the season. It matched the Barracuda’s franchise record for most goals in a season first set by Barclay Goodrow in 2015-16 season.

Dell made sure the game went to the shootout when he stopped McCormick with a breakaway attempt with under two minutes left in the overtime period. Then Dell made a save on a point blank shot by Lind with under a minute remaining. The best overtime chance for San Jose came when Agozzino’s wrist shot hit the post.

Driedger (7-3-0) finished the game stopping 19 of the 22 shots (and all three of the four shootout attempts) he faced to earn the victory. Dell (14-17-2) made 37 saves on 40 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NTOES: San Jose finished 0-for-5 on the power play. Coachella Valley went 2-for-7.

Coachella Valley has won eight straight games at home.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Hughes 2) Twarynski 3) Tye Kartye.

UP NEXT: San Jose concludes its four-game road trip against the San Diego Gulls on Wednesday 4/5 at 7:00pm at Pechanga Arena.