Wranglers fall 5-4 to Barracuda in San Jose

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Calgary Wranglers scored 20 seconds into the game and led twice in the first two periods, but fell 5-4 to the San Jose Barracuda on Friday night at Tech CU Arena.

Axel Hurtig opened the scoring at 0:20 of the first period, with Sam Morton and Tyson Gross drawing the assists. San Jose answered 33 seconds later on a goal from Thomas Messineo, before William Strömgren restored Calgary's lead at 2:46, set up by Gross and Morton. The Barracuda tied the game on a Brett Leason power-play goal at 3:08 and went ahead at 10:39 on Filip Bystedt's fourth goal of the season, taking a 3-2 lead into the first intermission.

Ben Jones pulled Calgary even at 6:55 of the second period, assisted by Mike Benning and Abram Wiebe, then scored shorthanded and unassisted at 8:24 to put the Wranglers in front 4-3. San Jose tied the game again at 14:42, when Andre Gasseau scored with assists from Jimmy Huntington and Donavan Houle.

Donavan Houle scored the game-winner at 5:59 of the third period, assisted by Messineo and Eric Pohlkamp. Calgary outshot San Jose 12-7 in the third but did not score again. The Wranglers took a tripping penalty at 18:54 of the third, and the Barracuda were called for tripping at 19:58.

Arsenii Sergeev made 28 saves on 33 shots for Calgary. Eric Comrie stopped 26 of 30 shots for San Jose.

Huntington finished with three assists for the Barracuda, while Houle had a goal and two assists and Messineo a goal and an assist. Jones scored twice for Calgary, and Morton and Gross each recorded two assists. San Jose outshot Calgary 33-30. The Barracuda went 1-for-5 on the power play, while the Wranglers were 0-for-3. Houle was named the game's first star, Jones the second star and Huntington the third star.

The loss drops Calgary to 4-2-0-0 on the season. San Jose improves to 2-4-0-0.

This recap is brought to you in part by Animas Painting — interior and exterior painting in Calgary. Reach Rafael at 403-604-5529.