Palm Desert, Ca. – The San Jose Barracuda (5-8-4-0) notched a season-high three power-play goals and were able to hold off a late Coachella Valley Firebirds (9-7-0-0) push on Wednesday night at Acrisure Arena for a 5-3 win. The victory was the Barracuda’s (1-6-2-2) first ever over the Firebirds in 11 attempts.
Leon Gawanke led the way as he collected his fourth-career three point game (1+2=3), and Thomas Bordeleau (0+2=2), Jacob Peterson (1+1=2) and Nathan Todd (1+1=2) all finished with two points.
In the first, on the first power play of the game, the Firebirds opened the scoring when Devin Shore (2) ripped in a top-shelf shot at 13:39.
In the second, on the Barracuda’s first power play, Danil Gushchin (6) would wire in the tying goal just 18 seconds into the advantage. Then, on a five-on-three man-advantage, Todd (2) snapped an 11-game goalless drought by tipping through a Bordeleau shot from the mid-point at 19:20.
19 seconds into the third, the Barracuda extended its lead to 3-1 as Gawanke (3) blasted a point shot past Chris Driedger, snapping a nine-game goalless drought, while collecting his third power-play point. At 5:59, Scott Sabourin (2) skipped the puck through Driedger’s five-hole to make it 4-1 Barracuda. The Firebirds would make things interesting by scoring a pair of goals to cut the lead back down to one, at 4-3. First Logan Morrison (5) during a delayed penalty and then Cameron Hughes (3) on a power play with an extra attacker. Despite the late push, the Barracuda would seal the win when Peterson (4) potted an empty-netter from his own endzone.
Eetu Makiniemi (1-2-0) made 31 saves to earn his first win of the year and Drieger (6-5-0) allowed five goals on 35 shots, suffering his first loss against the Barracuda in five games.