At this time last year, Tristan Bertucci was 19 years old and patrolling the blue line for the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League. Friday night in San Diego, the rookie turned in the best game of his young career and secured a 3-2 overtime victory for his Texas Stars.
The rookie defenseman made a crucial defensive intervention at the end of the first period to keep the score 1-0, before scoring his first professional goal to tie the game in the second period and topping it off by scoring the game-winner in overtime.
Meanwhile, backup goaltender Arno Tiefensee stopped 23 of 25 shots, turning in another excellent goaltending performance for the Stars.
The Gulls opened the match at full throttle and hemmed the Stars in their own zone for long stretches of time. The Stars, unable to effectively clear the puck, eventually paid for it when Sam Colangelo rolled off the boards to an open shooting lane and fired top corner to make it 1-0.
San Diego took the initiative after the goal and nearly scored again when a break in coverage left Matthew Phillips with a wide open net to shoot at. With 33 seconds left in the first, Bertucci was able to get the heel of his stick in the way of the puck and redirect it back towards Tiefensee to prevent what was going to be a sure goal.
Bertucci was awarded for his spectacular defensive intervention at the end of the first period when he scored his first professional goal to tie the game at one. The goal came at 14:31 of the second period while on the power play off of an excellent play from Kole Lind, who faked a shot from the left circle to draw an extra defender to him which opened a clear passing lane to the rookie who fired a shot from the high slot to score.
Tyson Hinds would regain the lead for the Gulls at 8:13 of the third period, but Artem Schlaine tied it three minutes later with his team-leading seventh goal of the year.
That set the stage for Bertucci’s closing act of the night.
Only 52 seconds into the extra frame, Cameron Hughes made a clean zone entry and managed to draw two defenders to him. Noticing the now open space, Hughes was able to turn and find the now on rushing Bertuccui who wasted no time firing a one-timer from the slot to make it 3-2 and secure the win for Texas.
The Stars, now with seven out of a possible eight points pocketed during this road trip, will look to complete a sweep of the Gulls with a rematch on Sunday evening.
Tonight’s lines
Lind-Hyry-Hughes
Stranges-Scott-McKenzie
Wheatcroft-Shlaine-Tuomaala
Martino-Becker-Seminoff
Taylor-Bergsland
Bertucci-Karow
White-Looft
Tiefensee
Injuries, scratches and notes
Capobianco, Kolyachonok (callup)
Hanas (hand injury)
Ertel, Chisholm, Punnett (scratch)
Tonight’s attendance was 8,013.
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