Photo courtesy of San Jose Barracuda Twitter. Patrick Sieloff readies himself before a game.
By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)
On the last game of a four game road stand the Barracuda fell flat in the third period and lost to the San Diego Gulls by a score of 5-2.
The game started off promising enough for San Jose as 4:49 in Jeffrey Viel scored his sixth goal of the season assisted by Adam Raska and Darren Brady. Making it 1-0 Barracuda on top early on in the contest.
After that goal San Jose went on the power play twice but failed to convert on both opportunities.
12:44 into the first William Eklund found himself on a two-on-one and buried a wrist shot home past Lukas Dostal to make it 2-0 San Jose.
That was the last goal of the period as the Barracuda dominated the period leading in shots as well by a wide margin of 14-3.
San Diego in the second came out with a new sense of determination and just 2:15 into the period they made the Barracuda pay.
From an awkward shot off the right wing boards Pavol Regenda sneaked his seventh goal of the season past goalie Eetu Makiniemi.
A little later in the second period a surprising event occurred when Eklund fought Glenn Gawdin resulting in Eklund being ejected from the game for instigation.
On the ensuing power play the Gulls scored as Benoit-Olivier Groulx tipped home a pass from Brayden Tracey tying the game at two.
There were a few more penalties between the two team though no more goal were scored in the period.
The shots at the end of the first favored San Jose 22-16.
In the third period both teams continued to load up on penalty minutes while the power play units continued to go cold.
Later on in the period on a wrap around feed Hunter Drew deposited the puck into an empty cage to give the Gulls a late lead.
San Jose pulled their goalie to try to come back but two empty net goals by Rocco Grimaldi dashed those hopes.
Putting the score at a final of 5-2 in favor of San Diego.
The shots at the end of the game favored San Jose at 31-24.
The three stars of the game 1st: Rocco Grimaldi 2nd: Hunter Drew 3rd: Pavol Regenda
San Jose plays the Canucks on Saturday at home at 6 p.m.
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