BARRACUDA TAKE GAME #2, DOWN TUCSON 6-3
Apr 21, 2018San Jose, CA - The San Jose Barracuda (1-1) survived a seesaw game-two of their five-game Divisional Round series with the Tucson Roadrunners (1-1) Saturday night at SAP Center, downing the top-seeded Roadrunners 6-3 and evening the series at 1-1.
At 1:25, Rudolfs Balcers (1) opened up the scoring early, giving the Barracuda a 1-0 lead by using a spinning wrister from the left circle to beat netminder Adin Hill. But the Roadrunners' Dylan Strome (3) would tie things up just three minutes later with a strike from the slot before giving his team a 2-1 lead with his second straight and the third of this early postseason as he wired a shot from the right wing at the 6:16 mark. The Barracuda answered at 11:45 when Adam Helewka (1) collected the puck during a scuffle in front of Tucson’s net and jammed it home with a backhander on the man advantage to make it 2-2. Rourke Chartier (1) would lift in a rebound of his own off a shot from Balcers to make it 3-2 for the 'Cuda with 4:52 left in the first.
In the second, Carter Camper dropped a backhand pass to an uncovered Mario Kempe (1) in the slot who tied it at 3-3 with the lone goal of the period at 6:36.
San Jose regained the lead once more to start the third when Chartier broke free up the right wing, hitting Hill in the chest pad to set up the point-blank put-back from Balcers (2), his fourth point on the night, making it 4-3 at 3:45. They would stretch the lead to two when Manny Wiederer (1) tipped in a deflected shot from Sasha Chmelevski with four minutes remaining. Chartier (2) would seal it for the 'Cuda at 18:28 with an empty-netter to push it to a 6-3 final.
San Jose netminder Antoine Bibeau (1-1) earned the victory by making 22 saves on 25 shots. On the other side, Hill (1-1) took the loss, giving up five goals on 32 shots.
The teams will travel to the desert to finish the series in Tucson with game three slated for 7 p.m. Wednesday night at the Tucson Convention Center. Tickets start at $10. Listen live on AM 1220 KDOW or on the all-new Sharks + SAP Center App.
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