San Jose Barracuda forward Cole Cassles battles for the puck with Tucson Roadrunners forward Milos Kelemen at Tech CU Arena on Wednesday JAN 3, 2024. (San Jose Barracuda)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — Danil Gushchin scored his second goal late in the third period on the power play as the San Jose Barracuda defeated the Tucson Roadrunners 6-4 in a wild high scoring game on Wednesday evening at Tech CU Arena.

Cole Cassels set up Gushchin’s heroics with a pass out to Russian forward on the right wing who fired home a one-timer with 2:42 remaining in the third period for his team leading 11th goal of the season to break a 4-4 deadlock.

San Jose has won two of its pasts three games. Tucson had its five-game winning streak snapped.

San Jose (11-14-4-0) drew first blood with an even strength goal early in the first period. Nathan Todd led an odd man rush up the ice. Todd centered a pass over to Kyle Rau whose shot was initially saved by Roadrunners goalie Matthew Villalta, but a trailing Gushchin cleaned up the rebound for first goal of the game, his tenth at the time, at the 4:10 mark.

The Barracuda doubled its lead just past the halfway mark of the opening frame. Leon Gawanke’s wrist shot from the right slot hit off the post and landed in front of the crease. Todd punched the puck in with a backhander for his seventh goal of the season at the 12:18 mark.

“To get a win tonight against those guys (Tucscon) was huge,” said Todd on his team beating the Roadrunners for the first time this season. “We battled hard there. Chrones (Chrona) made some big saves there at the end. We owed them one, so it was nice.”

Tucson (19-9-1-1) cut the ‘Cuda lead in half with a power play goal late in the period. Max Szuber’s shot from the point was redirected past ‘Cuda goalie Magnus Chrona by Austin Poganski for his fourth goal of the season at the 17:44 mark.

San Jose regained its two-goal lead with 48 seconds remaining in the first period. A centering pass from Oskar Lindblom went to Cassels who controlled it first with his skate before depositing the puck into the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season.

However, Tucson answered back on its next shift. A defensive breakdown led to a two-on-one down low for the Roadrunners. Jan Jenik centered a pass over to Josh Doan who was all alone and beat Chrona with a wrist shot for his team leading 13th goal of the season 11 seconds later at the 19:23 mark.

The Roadrunners scored the equalizer with an even strength goal late in the second period. Ben McCartney set up Cameron Crotty at the right point and Crotty blasted a slapshot past Chrona for his first goal of the season at the 18:15 mark.

San Jose regained the lead on the power play to start the third period. Shakir Mukhamadullin’s wrist shot from the point was redirected underneath Villalta by Scott Sabourin for his seventh goal of the season at the 1:00 mark.

Sabourin’s power play goal snapped a four-game power play draught for the ‘Cuda.

Yeah it was huge, it won the game for us (tonight),” said ‘Cuda head coach John McCarthy on their success with the man advantage. “We spent some time (practicing) on it over the week with some different things. Good to see them go in for us tonight. Guys start feeling good about it. Sometimes it’s very streaky, so hopefully we can ride that a little bit.”

Tucson scored the equalizer near the halfway mark of the third period. Victor Soderstrom skated into the ‘Cuda zone and from the left boards beat Chrona with a wrist shot through the five-hole for his seventh goal of the season at the 9:20 mark.

Artem Guryev completed the scoring with an empty net goal, his first of the season with 43 seconds remaining to seal the deal for the ‘Cuda.

Chrona (4-7-2) finished the game stopping 31 of the 35 shots he faced to earn his fourth victory of the season. Villalta made 32 saves on 37 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 2-for-4 on the power play. Tucson was 1-for-3.

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

UP NEXT: San Jose travels down to Ontario to take on the Reign in a two-game weekend series on Friday 1/5 at 7:00pm at Toyota Arena.