Barracuda fall to Reign 3-2 to end homestand

SAN JOSE — Aatu Jamsen scored the eventual game winning goal in the second period as the Ontario Reign edged the San Jose Barracuda 3-2 despite getting outplayed for the majority of the game on Wednesday evening at Tech CU Arena.

San Jose has lost four games in a row and are tied for the fifth spot with the Calgary Wranglers in the Pacific Division after the Wranglers 4-3 win over the Tucson Roadrunners tonight. Ontario has won three games in a row and clinched a playoff berth as they are four points behind the Colorado Eagles for the top spot in the division.

Ontario (39-22-3-1-82 points) scored two goals in the opening 32 seconds of the first period. Both goals were a result of turnovers inside the Barracuda zone. First Samuel Fagemo intercepted a clearing attempt by Cuda goaltender Gabriel Carriere and found Andre Lee out in the slot and Lee buried a wrist shot top shelf for his fifth goal of the season at the :20 mark.

Then 12 seconds later a giveaway by Danil Gushchin led to Glen Gawdin feeding Martin Chromiak who fired a one-timer past Carriere for his 14th goal of the season. It could not have a been a worse start for San Jose.

"Yeah, it's frustrating," said Barracuda head coach John McCarthy on his team's recent bad starts to games."There's not a lot of moral victories at this time of the year, we need some points here. But (there was a) lot of good stuff in the game. Territorially we held the advantage. I thought scoring chances wise we held the advantage. We had a few miscues, and they took advantage of them and that's the game."

San Jose (32-24-5-4-73 points) cut the lead in half with a short-handed goal just under five minutes later. Patrick Giles, who made his Cuda debut, intercepted a pass from Caleb Jones in the neutral zone. Giles skated in and beat Reign goaltender Phoenix Copley Cuda with a wrist shot to the stick side for his sixth goal of the season and first in a Barracuda sweater.

Carriere made a huge save at the 7:02 mark when Charles Hudon came in on a breakaway attempt after intercepting a pass at the Cuda blueline. Hudon dropped the puck back Chromiak, but Carriere stopped the point-blank chance.

"I saw, there was two of them. I was definitely trying to play the gap and not overcommitting cause I knew he (Hudon) had a passing option there. I think i really wanted to get a big save in that moment to not get the team down 3-1," Carriere said.

The Barracuda evened the game late in the opening frame with its second special team’s goal. While on the power play, a clearing attempt by Ontario’s Taylor Ward caromed off of the referee. Luca Cagnoni picked up the puck from behind the net and tucked home the puck with a wraparound for an unassisted goal, his 14th of the season at the 15:34 mark. Cagnoni has 10 power play goals and leads the league with 32 power play points.

"That one was quite one of the hardest ones I've scored this year," said a jokingly Cagnoni. "Nah I'm just joking. That was a quite a treat (for me)."

Ontario regained the lead with an even strength goal in the second period. Aatu Jamsen’s initial shot down low near the crease was stopped by Carriere’s skate but Jamsen cleaned up his own rebound to the short side for his seventh goal of the season at the 8:21 mark for what proved to be the eventual game winning goal. Francesco Pinelli and Reilly Walsh were credited with assists.

San Jose pulled Carriere for an extra attacker with under two minutes but were unsuccessful in sending the game to overtime and earning at least one point in the contest despite outshooting Ontario by a two-to-one margin 38-19.

Copley finished the game stopping 36 of the 38 shots he faced to earn his 22nd win of the season. Carriere made 16 saves on 19 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 1-for-5 on the power play. Ontario went 0-for-2.

The Three Stars of the Game: 1) Copley 2) Jamsen (1G,0A) 3) Cagnoni (1G, 0A).

San Jose begins a three-game road trip when they take on the Colorado Eagles on Friday April 4th at 6:05pm at Blue FCU Arena.