By Taylor Luptetti (@tayclupetti ):
On their first weekend without Olympic captain John McCarthy, the San Jose Barracuda went 0-2 against the San Diego Gulls in a two-game weekend matchup.
It was the sixth and seventh out of eight games this weekend for the Barracuda (21-19-2-3) and the Gulls (26-17-1-0). The Sharks and Ducks’ affiliate teams had two afternoon games back-to-back Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday’s matchup was started with 31 minutes of scoreless play until a shot from defenseman Paul Martin to center Alex True bounced off of left-wing forward Emerson Clark’s head into the net to give San Jose a 1-0 lead in the second.
Three minutes remaining in the same period, left-wing forward Brandon Bollig added to the ‘Cuda’s lead with their second and final goal of the game.
After remaining scoreless for two periods, the Gulls got the swing of things in the third period when Kevin Roy scored three minutes in. Less than two minutes later, center Eric Fehr got his first of two goals over the weekend and sent the game into overtime.
Center Dennis Rasmussen ended the game at the 2:41 mark of overtime, sending the ‘Cuda home with a point and a loss.
Jacob Middleton started things early for the ‘Cuda on Sunday with a goal 24 seconds into the first period.
It was 15 minutes before San Diego saw its first goal of the game. Left-wing forward Nic Kerdiles tied it up, followed by other left-wing forward Kalle Kossila to give the Gulls a 2-1 lead at the first intermission.
Rasmussen and Fehr gave San Diego its final two goals of the game in the second period, making it four unanswered.
A non-scoring third period sent the Gulls back to San Diego with back-to-back wins.
Next up, the Barracuda will host the Tucson Roadrunners on Valentine’s Day at 7 p.m.