The San Diego Gulls allowed two goals in both the first and second periods as the San Jose Barracuda evened their Calder Cup playoff series at one game apiece Saturday with a 5-1 victory in San Jose.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven Pacific Division finals will be held Wednesday at Valley View Casino Center, where each of the next three games will be played.
“We just need to regroup,” said Gulls defenseman Jaycob Megna. “We are 1-1 so that’s the positive of the weekend but we know we got to be a lot better and defend home ice.”
Troy Grosenick stopped 31 of 32 shots and Ryan Carpenter scored a power- play goal in the first period and assisted on Barclay Goodrow’s goal 40 seconds into the third period for the Barracuda, the San Jose Sharks American Hockey League affiliate.
Sam Carrick scored on a rebound of a shot by defenseman Keaton Thompson three minutes, 53 seconds into the second period for the Gulls, cutting the deficit to 3-1. San Jose regained a three-goal lead on Adam Helewka’s goal with 3:45 left in the second period.
The Barracuda opened the scoring 4:31 into the first period on defenseman Nick DeSimone’s first goal of the playoffs before a crowd at SAP Center at San Jose announced at 5,911. They increased their lead to 3-0 on Carpenter’s goal 7:31 into the first period and Buddy Robinson’s goal 1:10 into the second period.
The Gulls were outshot, 42-32, including a 14-6 disadvantage in the second period.
The Gulls, the Anaheim Ducks AHL affiliate, were scoreless on all three of their power-play opportunities. San Jose scored on two of its three power-play opportunities.
Gulls goaltender Jhonas Enroth allowed all five Barracuda goals and made 30 saves. Coach Dallas Eakins replaced Enroth with 13:14 to play with Dustin Tokarski, who stopped all seven shots he faced in his first action in the Gulls seven playoff games.
— City News Service.