Photo courtesy of San Jose Barracuda. Oskar Lindblom fires a shot on goal as players crash to the net (taken on 10/28/23).

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN JOSE- The Barracuda opened up a weekend series against Coachella Valley with a loss by a final of 8-2.

Getting the start for San Jose was Magnus Chrona while for the Firebirds Chris Driedger was in between the pipes.

The goal-scoring was kicked off by Coachella Valley as 5:18 into the first Luke Henman scored his first goal of the season assisted by Andrew Poturalski and Kole Lind.

Then on Radim Simek’s second penalty of the period, the Firebird’s powerplay scored as Max McCormick got his first of the season.

With less than five minutes left in the first Coachella Valley tacked on to their lead with Ryker Evans getting the goal.

At the end of the first, the shots favored the Firebirds 19-10.

In the second the scoring got going quickly as just 1:09 in Shane Wright extended their lead to 4-0.

Later in the period, Jacob Melanson made it a five-goal lead, and then Marian Studenic followed that up with a goal before the second period ended.

At the end of the second, the shots favored Coachella Valley 29-18.

The third period saw San Jose swap goalies as Georgi Romanov was now in goal.

Getting his second of the game was McCormick in the third who made it 7-0 followed up by a shorthanded goal by Ryan Winterton for the Firebirds.

San Jose would not be shutout as Danil Gushchin scored his second of the season making it 8-1. The assists go to Nikita Okhotiuk and Valterri Pulli.

Gushchin was not done as he scored another one this time assisted by Leon Gawanke.

At the end of the game, the shots favored the Firebirds 39-35. San Jose’s powerplay went 0/2 while Coachella Valley’s went 1/3.

McCormick ended up having himself a game as he not only got two goals but also three assists.

The three stars of the game were: 1st: Max McCormick 2nd: Chris Driedger 3rd: Danil Gushchin

The second of this weekend series will be played tomorrow in San Jose at 3 p.m.