San Jose Barracuda forward Andrew Poturalski, who was the number one star of the game, battles with Coachella Valley Firebirds defenseman Gustav Oloffson during the Barracuda’s 5-1 win over the Firebirds at Tech CU Arena on Wednesday OCT 30, 2024.

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Barracuda are scorching hot.

Team Teal had five different goal scorers in a 5-1 route of the Coachella Valley Firebirds on Wednesday evening at Tech CU Arena.

San Jose has won a season best five games in a row and just their second game against their Pacific Division rival. Coachella Valley has lost their third game in five games.

San Jose (6-1) drew first blood with an even strength goal in the first period. Brandon Coe intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and skated into Coachella Valley zone. Coe threaded a pass to an unmarked Luke Grainger who made one move to get Firebirds goalie Ales Stezka to go down before roofing a backhander top-shelf for his first goal of the season at the 7:34 mark.

The Barracuda doubled its lead 58 seconds later. Luca Cagnoni kept the puck inside the Firebirds zone. The rookie defenseman found Andrew Poturalksi along the slot and Poturalski’s shot deflected off of the leg of Colin Graf and into the back of the net for Graf’s third goal of the season at the 8:32 mark.

Coachella Valley (2-3) had 12 shots on net in the opening frame but weren’t able to solve the mystery known as Barracuda goalie Yaroslav Askarov who made some key stops to keep the Firebirds off of the scoreboard.

The Firebirds cut the lead in half midway through the second period. Jager Firkus found Ben Meyers down low behind the net. Meyers made a move to get past Shakir Mukhamadullin before skating out from behind the net and lifting a backhander past Askarov for his second goal of the season at the 10:30 mark.

San Jose regained their two-goal lead with a short-handed goal. Justin Bailey won a battle along the boards and sent a pass up the ice that sprung Colin White on a breakaway. White beat Stezka with a back hand shot for his third goal of the season at the 13:02 mark.

The Barracuda earned its biggest lead of the contest early in the third period. Donovan Houle, who had a great night throwing his body around against the Firebirds, threw a shot on net that was initially saved by Stezka. Lucas Vanroyboys crashed the net and on is second attempt cleaned up the rebound for his second goal of the season at the 3:52 mark.

Poturalski completed the scoring with an empty net from deep inside his own zone for his third goal of the season at the 16:50 mark as Coachella Valley pulled their goalie with over four minutes remaining in the final frame.

Askarov (5-0) remained undefeated as he stopped 36 of the 37 shots to earn his fifth win of the season. Stekaz (1-3) made 33 save on 37 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 0-for-2 on the power play. Coachella Valley was 0-for-1.

San Jose is 2-10-2-3 in the all-time series with Coachella Valley.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Poturalski 2) Askarov 3) Grainger.

UP NEXT: San Jose heads to the Midwest this weekend to take on the Iowa Wild in a two-games series. The first game is Saturday 11/2 at 4:00pm at Wells Fargo Arena.