San Jose Barracuda forward Danil Gushchin (#75) celebrates along the bench with his teammates Leon Gawanke’s (#26) goal against the Henderson Silver Knights at Tech CU Arena on Friday DEC 8, 2023. (San Jose Barracuda)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — Score early and score often was the theme of the night.

The San Jose Barracuda scored early in every period in a dominate 6-1 victory over the Henderson Silver Knights on Friday evening at Tech CU Arena.

San Jose snapped its two-game losing streak with it first win against the Silver Knights this season. Henderson has lost four games in a row/snapped its three-game losing streak.

San Jose (6-10-4-0) drew first blood early in the first period with an even strength goal. Nathan Todd found Radim Simek in between the faceoff circles and Simek beat Silver Knights goalie Jordan Papimy with wrist shot top shelf for his third goal of the season at 4:56 mark.

Henderson (10-10-1-2) answered late in the opening frame with an even strength goal. Mason Primeau led a counterattack up the ice. Primeau fed Daniel D’Amato in the neutral zone. D’Amato skated in and beat ‘Cuda goalie Eetu Makiniemi with a wrist shot to the far side for his first goal of the season at the 14:00 mark.

The ‘Cuda regained just before the end of the opening 20 minutes with a power play goal. Jacob Peterson sent a pass back up to the point to Leon Gawanke. The German defenseman lasered in a wrist shot past Papimy to the far side for his fourth goal of the season at the 18:36 mark.

San Jose went up 3-1 56 seconds into the second period. Peterson’s backhand attempt was saved by Papimy but Ethan Cardwell cleaned up the rebound into an empty net for his sixth goal of the season. Simek received the secondary assist.

The ‘Cuda’s penalty kill helped keep the Silver Knights off the board in the middle frame as they killed off three Henderson power play attempts.

“I like our (penalty) kill a lot,” said ‘Cuda head coach John McCarthy on his team being a perfect five-for-five. “I thought we took advantage of our chances. I thought the third period was our best period.”

San Jose opened the third period as it did the previous two, with an early goal to start the period. A shot from Cole Cassels from the left slot was cleaned up by Todd with a backhand shot around Papimy for his fourth goal of the season at the 1:41 mark.

Gushchin joined the goal party as the ‘Cuda’s fifth different goal scorer when he blasted a one-timer past Papimy after receiving a feed from Cassels. Gushchin’s fourth point of the game was his team leading seventh goal of the season at the 5:16 mark.

He’s (Gushchin) is a dynamic offensive player. So, it’s good to see him having success there,” McCarthy said.

The Barracuda kept their foot on the gas pedal. A turnover inside the Silver Knights zone led to a 2-on-0 odd man rush. Ozzie Weisblatt set up Brett Kemp’s one-timer for Kemp’s first goal of his AHL career at the 9:12 mark.

Makiniemi (2-2-0) finished the game stopping 26 of the 27 shots he faced to earn his second victory of the season. Papimy (1-4-1) made 23 saves on 29 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 1-for-2 on the power play. Henderson went 0-for-5.

Henderson forward Girgori Denisenko suffered an upper body injury when he took a puck up to the face on a clearing attempt by Simek early in the second period. He was able to finish the game.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Gushchin 2) Todd 3) Simek.

UP NEXT: San Jose and Henderson conclude their two-games series on Saturday 12/9 at 6:00pm at Tech CU Arena.