By Taylor Lupetti (@tayclupetti):
After defeating the Ontario Reign (5-7-0-1) in the first game of the weekend, the San Jose Barracuda (6-7-0-1) fell short in the 4-1 game to end the weekend tied.
“I thought we deserved a better fate,” said head coach Roy Sommer. “We had 40 shots and I thought we moved the puck pretty good…overall I thought we played a pretty good hockey game, I’m not mad at the effort.”
The Reign were the first on the scoreboard when forward right-wing Matt Luff scored in the opening minutes of the first period on an assist from defensemen Matt Roy.
Retaliating the goal for the Cuda was forward right wing Jon Martin with his third goal of the season. Defesemen Nick DeSimone assisted Martin with the goal at 7:20 in the first period.
“It’s always good to get the first one out of the way,” Martin said. “I’m pretty happy.”
It was an uneventful second period as both Grosenick and Reign goalie Cal Petersen held strong. At the end of the second, Grosenick had 30 saves, 12 more than Petersen at 18.
Forward Michael Mersch broke the tie within the first two minutes of the third period, finding the back of the net with a power play goal.
Luff came back in the third to score his second goal of the night in the third period, setting Ontario ahead 3-1.
Sealing the game for Ontario was forward Andrew Crescenzi with an empty netter in the last few minutes of the game
Back-up goalie Antoine Bibeau earned a shutout Saturday when he guarded the net. Troy Grosenick took his place back in the net in tonight’s game and had 40 saves total.
“Whoever is in the net, we’re just not giving them a lot of offense,” Sommer said. “But overall, I thought he (Grosenick) played real well tonight.”
The Cuda are staying home for the holiday as they will return to SAP Center on Wednesday to take on the San Antonio Rampage at 7 p.m.