Vincent, Wahlstrom Lead Barracuda Past Gulls in Dominant 4-1 Victory

The San Jose Barracuda needed exactly one period to figure out Calle Clang, and then they needed about five minutes to make the game unwinnable for San Diego. Three second-period goals in a span of fewer than three minutes gave San Jose the breathing room it needed, and a 4-1 victory over the Gulls at Tech CU Arena on Wednesday night pushed the Barracuda's winning streak to four games.

Anthony Vincent got San Jose on the board first, working into the slot at 3:49 of the second and snapping home his eighth goal of the season. Just two minutes later, Oliver Wahlstrom made it 2-0 by tipping a Filip Bystedt bid past Clang and then poking the loose puck the rest of the way for his 22nd of the year. The Gulls responded almost immediately when Tristan Luneau beat Laurent Brossoit at 6:47 to pull San Diego within one, but any momentum that goal might have generated was gone less than eight minutes later.

The sequence that truly buried the Gulls was a shorthanded effort. With San Jose skating down a man, Jimmy Huntington collected a Vincent broken-stick shot and finished it at 14:20 of the period, restoring the two-goal cushion and swinging the game decisively back toward the Barracuda. Huntington's 13th goal of the season on a penalty kill is the kind of play that shows up in the standings. San Jose entered the night at 34-16-2-2; that record holds up when you can score shorthanded and absorb a Gulls response without blinking.

The third period was largely procedural. The Barracuda controlled it defensively, clamping down against a San Diego side sitting at 25-18-8-4 on the season. Bystedt, who had set up Wahlstrom's goal earlier, finished his night by putting the formal end to the contest with an empty-net goal at 18:09 for his 16th of the year.

What makes this stretch compelling for San Jose is the specificity of the damage: four straight wins, all four against the Gulls, who are Anaheim's AHL affiliate. That kind of repeated success against a single opponent in a short window can have real implications in Pacific Division standings. The Barracuda's next test comes Saturday at Tech CU Arena against the Tucson Roadrunners.