Barracuda lackluster in 3-2 loss to Condors

SAN JOSE — Cameron Wright was at the right place at the right time.

Wright scored the game winning goal with 3:15 remaining in the third period to give the Bakersfield Condors a 3-2 victory over the San Jose Barracuda on Wednesday evening at Tech CU Arena.

San Jose has lost three out of its past four games and back-to-back at home. Bakersfield snapped its six-game losing streak.

A giveaway by Tristen Robins off of the skate of Rem Pitlick in front of his own net set up Wright's heroics. Wright grabbed the puck and beat Cuda goalie Gabriel Carriere with a turnaround wrist shot for his 10th goal of the season.

The first period featured 20 minutes of physicality and chippy-ness. Both teams combined for five big open ice hits, three by San Jose and two by Bakersfield. The physicality led to many after whistle skirmishes with no love lost between both squads in their sixth meeting this season.

San Jose (26-20-2-3-57 points) drew first blood late in the opening frame. Cuda goalie Gabriel Carriere sent a clearing attempt that ricochet of the left boards and trickled out to the neutral zone. Thomas Bordeleau gathered the puck, raced down the ice on a breakaway, his second of the period, and glided the puck past Condor's goalie Olivier Rodrigue through his five-hole with a backhander for his 12th goal of the season at the 15:27 mark.

"Yeah, I wasn't missing twice," said Bordeleau when asked about his second breakaway chance. "I just got what the goalie gave me really and I just didn't have time to roof it. So, I thought the five-hole was going to be a really good option."

Bakersfield (21-19-6-3-51 points) came within inches of evening the game up while on the power play. However, Carriere made a glove hand save while sprawled down in the crease, robbing an open net chance by notorious Cuda killer Seth Griffith.

"I just kinda just tried to get something over there and luckily it ended up going in my glove. But I was trying to cover as much (ground) as possible," Carriere said.

The Condors scored the equalizer with 17.6 seconds left in the first 20 minutes. Phil Kemps initial shot was saved by Carriere, but the rebound popped up and was batted in out of midair by Alex Swetlikoff, who was uncontested in front of the crease, for his third goal of the season.

Bakersfield gained its first lead of the game with a five-on-three power play goal late in the second period. With Braden Hache and Luca Cagnoni taking penalties 27 seconds apart, Connor Carrick beat Carriere with a wrist shot to the glove side for his 11th goal of the season at the 13:45 mark. Carrick has scored in four straight games against the Barracuda and has eight points during that stretch. Griffith who picked up the primary assist, now has 43 points in 39 games against San Jose.

"Obvious (we took) a lot of penalties, a lot of penalty kill. It disrupted the flow of the game. And then yeah we gotta take care of the puck better in our own slot...It was an important game for us and I would have liked to have had more of a team wide investment in the game. I didn't think everybody was into it," Barracuda head coach John McCarthy said.

San Jose evened the game to start the third period while on a continuation power play from the second period. Cagnoni fed a pass down low to Rem Pitlick near the right boards. Pitlick found Danil Gushchin along the goal line and the Russian forward snuck a wrist shot just inside the right post for his 16th goal of the season 34 seconds in.

The Barracuda's puck management was poorly managed for the majority of the final frame as they weren't able to get Carriere off of the ice for an extra attacker until there was under 30 seconds left and never had a good scoring chance at the end of the game for the equalizer.

Rodrigue (15-11-6-1) finished the game stopping 16 of the 18 shots to earn his 15th win of the season. Carriere (4-4-0), who arguably was the Cuda's best player on the ice, had a busy night and kept San Jose in the game for the entire 60 minutes made 37 saves on 40 shots in the losing battle.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished the game 1-for-3 on the power play. Bakersfield went 1-for-6.

Colin White played in his 100 career AHL game.

The Three Stars of the Game: 1) Wright (1G,0A) 2) Gushchin (1G,0A) 3) Carrick (1G,0A).

San Jose continues its four-game homestand with a weekend series against the Henderson Silver Knights on Saturday 3/1 at 6:00pm at Tech CU Arena.