San Jose, CA – The San Jose Barracuda (22-27-1-4) and Coachella Valley Firebirds (35-10-4-2) exchanged leads five times on Saturday night at Tech CU Arena, but a late goal was the difference as CV collected a 5-4 win. In the loss, Barracuda captain Andrew Agozzino extended his point streak to eight games (6+7=13) and in the process collected his 500th AHL point when scored in the first period.
In the first, Kole Lind (22) directed in a back-post pass from Max McCormick to give Coachella Valley at 1-0 lead at 8:54. The Barracuda would level the score on the power play as Agozzino received a Thomas Bordeleau feed, beating Chris Driedger from in tight. 13 seconds later, Ozzy Wiesblatt (2) would give the Barracuda a 2-1 lead as he swiped in a Tristen Robins shot. At 16:12, Jeremy McKenna (1) one-timed a power-play goal from the left wing to tie the game at 2-2. 58 seconds later, Ryker Evans point-shot would go off Alex True (9), giving the Firebirds a 3-2 lead.
In the second, the Barracuda put 19 shots on net, but it wasn’t until 19:29 when Jeff Viel (10) powered in a net drive while shorthanded to level the score at 3-3.
Tied at 3-3, Martin Kaut (7) would give the Cuda a 4-3 lead at 3:29 of the third as he tipped in a Artemi Kniazev shot. At 9:21, Jimmy Schuldt (8) fired in the equalizer and then with 2:29 remaining in the game, Tye Kartye (17) would pot the game-winning goal.
Strauss Mann (6-6-0) suffered the loss, giving up five goals on 38 shots, while Driedger (2-1-0) picked up the win by making 37 saves.