Photo courtesy of San Jose Barracuda. Nikolai Knyzhov battles out front with a Firebirds player.
By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)
San Jose and Coachella Valley played a tightly contested game that went all the way to overtime but ended with the Firebirds on top 4-3.
In net for San Jose was Aaron Dell while Chris Driedger started for the Firebirds.
The Barracuda got off to a quick start in this one as Alexander True took a high-sticking penalty putting San Jose on the power play.
On the man-advantage Kyle Criscuolo got a feed from Andrew Agozzino that he buried in the slot to make it 1-0.
The rest of the period was quiet offensively as neither team got on the board.
Despite no goals there were three other penalties handed out in the period one against San Jose and two against Coachella Valley.
At the end of the first the shots favored San Jose at 11-9.
The second period was a little quieter with neither team getting on the board till later in the period.
That goal came from Carsen Twarynski who buried his 10th goal of the season to tie the game up at one.
The second period finished with the shots now favoring the Firebirds at 28-18.
In the third Coachella Valley struck fast as just 1:35 in Luke Henman scored fifth marker on the year to make it 2-1.
San Jose had a quick response though as just a couple minutes later Thomas Bordeleau sniped one past Driedger to tie the game back up.
The offensive frenzy continued this time Ozzy Wiesblatt fead a beautiful pass on up to Jeffrey Viel who finished on the breakaway putting his point streak up to four games.
However, Coachllea Valley was not out of it quiet yet as 8:59 into the period Cameron Hughes responded tying the game right back up.
Neither team could find any more offense pushing the game to overtime.
In overtime it didn’t take long to find out who would win as Kole Lind put the game away in front of the home crowd handing San Jose their first overtime defeat of the season.
The three stars of the game were: 1st: Kole Lind 2nd: Luke Henman 3rd: Austin Poganski
San Jose’s next game will be on Friday against the Ontario Reign at home at 7 p.m.
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