San Jose Barracuda forward Justin Bailey (#90) celebrates a goal with his teammates during his team’s 5-1 win over the San Diego Gulls at Tech CU Arena on Tuesday NOV 21, 2023. (San Jose Barracuda)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Barracuda scored four goals in the second period en route to a 5-4 victory over the San Diego Gulls on Tuesday night at Tech CU Arena.

San Jose snapped a two-game losing streak. San Diego suffered its season worse 12 straight loss (0-9-3) after winning its first two games.

San Jose (4-6-4-0) drew first blood early in the first period on the power play. Cole Cassels sent a shot in from the point. Justin Bailey made a backhand pass back into the crease where Thomas Bordeleau tapped it home past Gulls netminder Calle Clang for his fourth goal of the season at the 5:46 mark.

Despite outshooting San Jose by a two-to-one margin (12-6), San Diego (2-9-3-0) weren’t able to get a puck by ‘Cuda netminder Georgi Romanov in the opening frame.

The Barracuda doubled its lead with its second power play goal at the 7:00 mark. Leon Gawanke centered a pass over to Jacob Peterson who buried a one-timer past Clang for his second goal of the season.

San Jose scored its third unanswered goal 27 seconds later thanks to a gift by San Diego. Olen Zellweger turned over the puck to Brandon Coe right in front of the net. Coe snuck a backhander past Clang for his fifth goal of the season at the 7:27 mark.

“Obviously it’s good to get the two points,” said ‘Cuda head coach John McCarthy regarding his team’s overall performance. “A couple of things I’d like to cleanup. I’d like to see us close out the game a little bit firmer than we did. But wins have been hard to come by, so I’m happy for the guys.”

The Gulls broke the seal on the power play thanks last season’s Barracuda captain. Andrew Agozzino’s wrist shot from up by the point beat Romanov up high for Agozzino’s second goal of the season at the 10:00 mark.

Boredleau scored his second goal of the game Ethan Cardwell’s attempted pass hit off the skate of Zellweger and ricochet off the shoulder of Bordeleau for his fifth goal of the season at the 15:07 mark.

“It feels good, I mean I got a couple of bounces, (was) lucky to be at the right place at the right time. Our whole line played really good, so it was easy to count on things going our way,” Bordeleau said.

San Jose scored its fourth goal of the middle frame Cardwell cleaned up a rebound off a shot by Peterson that was initially saved by Clang. Cardwell’s fourth goal of the season came at the 18:34 mark.

Former ‘Cuda defenseman Trevor Carrick found Pavol Regenda right along the crease as he buried home a point-blank shot for his team leading ninth goal of the season at the 10:13 mark of the third period.

San Diego cut the Cuda lead to two when Nathan Gaucher scored into an open net when Jacob Perreault centered the puck right to the tape of Gaucher’s stick right in front of the crease at the 13:56 mark. It was Gaucher’s second goal of the season.

Carrick scored the Gulls third unanswered goal of the period when he wired in a wrist shot from the point through traffic for his third goal of the season with 17 seconds left in the game.

Romanov (3-2-2) finished the night stopping 26 of the 30 shots he faced to earn his third victory of the season. Clang (1-5-2) gave up five goals on 24 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 2-for-5 on the power play. San Diego was 1-for-3.

‘Cuda Winger Ozzy Wiesblatt left the game during the first period after throwing a big hit with an injury and did not return to the game. There was no further update regarding his condition.

The Three Stars of the Game: 1) Bordeleau 2) Cardwell 3) Peterson.

UP NEXT: San Jose hosts the Ontario Reign for a Thanksgiving weekend two-game series on Friday 11/24 at 7:00pm at Tech CU Arena.