Photo credit: @SJBarracuda

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The San Jose Barracuda continued their success on the power play in the preseason. They scored two more goals with the man advantage en route to a 5-3 victory over the Colorado Eagles sweeping the two-game series against their Pacific Division on Saturday evening at Solar4America Ice at San Jose.

Colorado drew first blood early in the first period. Igor Shvryev scored his first goal of the preseason beating Cuda goalie Josef Korenar, who made his preseason debut, at the 5:16 mark.

San Jose scored the equalizer when a deflected puck found its way in front of the net where Krystov Hrabik was camped out in front. Hrabik tipped in the puck past the reach of newly acquired Eagles goalie Antoine Bibeau for his second goal of the pre-season at the 13:47 mark. Bibeau was traded yesterday by the San Jose Sharks to the Colorado Avalanche for defenseman Nick Meloche.

The Cuda gained the lead on power play with under a minute remaining in the opening frame. Jayden Halbgewachs fed a pass over to Noah Gregor, who skated in from the left slot and released a wicked wrist shot past Bibeau for his second goal of the preseason at the 19:14 mark. Nick DeSimone received the secondary assist.

Colorado outshot San Jose 10-9 in the first period.

A scary moment happened with under eight minutes left in the second period. A shot from the point by Nikolai Knyzhov deflected off a stick that hit Sasha Larocque hit in the face and went down bleeding on the ice. Larocque returned in the third period and finished the game.

San Jose had a full two-minute 5-on-3 power play with 7:03 remaining in the middle frame. However, they couldn’t cash in as they only registered two shots on goal.

Colorado gained momentum off the penalty kill and three minute later tallied the equalizer. Julian Nantel sent a backhander near the right side of the net for his first goal of the preseason at the 16:02 mark. Yuri Terao and Sheldon Dries received assists on the goal.

Maxim Letunov gave the Cuda back the lead on the power just before the end of the second period. Joachim Blichfeld sent a pass from the right faceoff circle down low to Letunov near the crease. Letunov then made a highlight move going backhand to forehand with his back to the net and lifted the puck just under the cross bar for his first goal of the preseason goal at the 18:07 mark.

In the third period, Ivan Chekhovich gave the Cuda an insurance goal when sent a wrist shot through a sea of traffic into the lower left corner of the goal that beat Hunter Miska, who replaced Bibeau with 9:48 remaining in the second period, for his first goal at the 8:52 mark. Thomas Gregorie and Marcus Vela assisted on the goal.

Trevor Carrick iced the game with an empty-net goal from center ice at the 17:33 mark, when the Eagles pulled Miska for an extra attacker. Nick DeSimone received the only assist.

Michael Joly slapped in a one-timer goal from the faceoff right circle to complete the scoring at 18:33 mark.

Korenar finished the game stopping 20 of the 23 shots he faced to earn the win.

GAME NOTES: San Jose 2/4 on the power play. Colorado was 0/3.

Jacob Middleton and Anti Suomela were reassigned to the Barracuda earlier in the day.

Meloche made his debut for San Jose.

San Jose went 4-2-1-1 versus Colorado last season.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda kick off the regular season against the Ontario Reign at Toyota Arena on Friday, October 4 at 7:00 pm.