Month: October 2019

Barracuda shoot down Condors in 5-0 shutout win

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photo from: sjbarracuda.com

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — It doesn’t matter what time of the day the San Jose Barracuda take the ice to play a game. For the second straight game, they dominated and shutout their opponent in a 5-0 victory over the defending Pacific Division champion Bakersfield Condors on Wednesday morning at SAP Center.

The early start time of 11:00 am was due to the annual Cuda Classroom Day where students from the area’s elementary and middle schools were among the 3,648 spectators inside the arena.

The game featured the first game back for Radim Simek, the San Jose Sharks defenseman who suffered an ACL injury to his knee back on March 12. The Sharks sent him down to the Cuda for an rehab assignment to get him into game shape before he joins the parent club.

“I felt great on the ice,” said the Czech native Simek. “The first period was harder for me. It was eight months without (playing) hockey for me. The second and third period was better and we got a big win.”

San Jose (4-3-0-0) jumped out to a 1-0 lead late in the first period with the man advantage. Jayden Halbgewachs sent a pass along the left boards over to Joel Kellman. Kellman found a wide open Joachim Blichfeld in between the circles and he sent a quick wrist shot past Condors goalie Dylan Wells into the lower right corner of the net for his first goal of the season at the 18:49 mark.

“Great play by Blichy (Blichfeld) to start it off on the power play,” said Cuda head coach Roy Sommer. “Which is starting to click a little bit. It’s starting to finally find some traction.”

Alex True found himself in the right place at the right time as he doubled the ‘Cuda lead just halfway past the second period. Kellman cleared the puck out of the zone just as the penalty to True had expired. It found its way right to True’s stick as he skated in on a breakaway using a backhand shot to beat Wells for his third goal of the season at the 11:56 mark.

Less than three minutes later, Blichfeld scored his second goal of the game when received a pass from Lean Bergmann and wristed in his second goal of the season at the 14:17 mark. Keaton Middleton received the secondary assist on the goal.

Despite out shooting San Jose 19-14 through 40 minutes, Bakersfield (3-5-1-0) found it self trailing 3-0 and not being able to find any answers on their five power play opportunities, including a five-on-three they failed to cash in on.

“I though the goalie (Korenar) kept us in the game early,” said Sommer. “It was similar to the Colorado game where we kind of got opportune goals.”

San Jose put the game away with 6:17 remaining in the third period. Halbgewachs led a two-on-one odd man break with Evan Weinger. Halbgewachs made a spin-o-rama move around Dmitri Samorukov before centering the puck out in front of the crease over to Weinger who one-timed it into the back of the net for his second goal of the season.

The ‘Cuda put the icing on the cake less than three minutes later on the power play. Thomas Gregoire fed a cross-ice pass over to Simek who fired a shot toward the middle of the ice where Bergmann camped out and used his stick to tip the puck past Wells for his third goal of the season at the 16:43 mark. With the goal and assist, Bergmann has scored in all four games he’s played with San Jose totalling six points (3G, 3A).

“The penalty kill has been good for us the last few games,” said Sommer. “Last two teams have been 0 for 12 or 0 for 13. That makes a big difference and we’re scoring (goals) five-on-five.”

Korenar (3-2-0) finished the game stopping all 28 shots he faced for his second shutout in a row. Wells finished with 22 saves on 27 shots in the losing cause.

GAME NOTES: San Jose was 2/6 on the power play. Bakersfield was 0/6.

Kellman recorded two assists to extend his point streak (1G 7A=8) to six games.

The Barracuda had five players earn multiple points in the victory.

UP NEXT: The Barracuda travel up north to Stockton to take on the Heat on Friday, November 1 at 7:00 pm at Stockton Arena.

San Jose Sharks podcast with Len Shapiro: Sharks come off a 1-4 road trip, host Jets Friday night at the Tank

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Photo credit: @sharks_fanly

On the Sharks podcast with Len:

#1 Len in short the Boston Bruins (9-1-2) made short work of the San Jose Sharks (4-8-1) with two goals in the first and three goals in the second period are teams learning about the Sharks weakness crash the net early apply the mercy rule in the third period.

#2 How much does it really show now that the Sharks just might have made a mistake in their off season dealing of Gustav Nyquist, Justin Braun, Joe Pavelski, Joonas Donskoi, just to make room for one player Erik Karlsson is this the kind of criticism that the team is hearing now 13 games into the season and four game below .500.

#3 Talk about the road trip the Sharks lost four of their last five games if you include their loss before the trip that was to Buffalo it would five out of six loses was team unprepared for this trip or they simply lack the talent to win against teams like Buffalo, Toronto, Ottawa and Boston?

#4 We talked about Nyquist, Braun, Pavelski, and Donskoi the former players on this team but what about the man they made some cap room for Karlsson how much of the weight of the team is his?

#5 The Winnipeg Jets (6-7-0) come into San Jose suffering a defeat on Tuesday night in Anaheim 7-4. The Jets have won three of their last six games the Sharks have lost three straight going into Friday night but with home ice Jets and Sharks who has the upper hand in this contest?

Len does the Sharks podcasts each Wednesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Headline Sports podcast with London Marq: Kings remain winless; Warriors host Suns tonight; Astros-Nats all knotted up; plus more

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Photo credit: sacbee.com

On Headline Sports podcast with London:

#1 The Sacramento Kings suffered another loss this time at home to the Denver Nuggets 101-84. The Kings had four players in double figures, but it wasn’t enough as the Nuggets kept the pressure up in the second half.

#2 The Golden State Warriors (1-3) finally picked up their first win for 2019-20 against the last place New Orleans Pelicans (0-4) 134-123. The Warriors tip off against the Phoenix Suns tonight at Chase Center. They’ll be looking for their first home win of the season. Is it possible?

#3 The World Series is all knotted up at three games a piece after the Washington Nationals had lost three straight games, came back and won it by five runs 7-2 at Minute Maid Field on Tuesday night. Washington manager Dave Martinez was ejected from the game arguing about a hit ball hit to Astros pitcher Brad Peacock, who threw it to first baseman Yuri Gurriel, whose glove came off the ball hit baserunner Turner and was ruled out after a review play.

#4 The San Francisco 49ers are setting all sorts of numbers with a huge offensive Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in a 51-13 win over the Carolina Panthers. It was the first time since 2003 that the 49ers scored 50 points.

#5 The Oakland Raiders didn’t fare anywhere close as they lost the Houston Texans Sunday after playing five games in six weeks out of town. The Raiders are in second in the AFC West and play their next game at the Oakland Coliseum on Nov. 3rd against the Detroit Lions.

London Marq does Headline Sports each Wednesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Jose Barracuda podcast with Marko Ukalovic: Cuda host Bakersfield in Wednesday matinee at SAP Center

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Photo credit: @sjbarracuda

On the Barracuda podcast with Marko:

#1 The Barracuda (3-3-0) are coming off a split in Colorado last Friday and Saturday nights taking the second game. How important is it for the Cuda to get that split going into Wednesday’s game against the Bakersfield Condors (3-4-0)?

#2 The Barracuda not only got the win last Saturday in Colorado (4-3-0) in game 2, but they threw a shutout 4-0 after getting beat on Friday night.

#3 Cuda goalie Josef Korenar (2-2-0) made 31 saves to collect his first shutout of the season and his fifth of his AHL career.

#4 The game last Saturday against the Eagles was the Barracuda’s 150th victory in franchise history.

#5 The Condors are a team that could give the Barracuda fits and their looking to pick up their fifth win. Meanwhile, the Barracuda have won two of their last five games and have home ice for today’s matinee.

Marko does the Barracuda podcasts each Wednesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Stanford MBB exhibition game against Sonoma State cancelled

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Photo credit: gostanford.com

By Ana Kieu

Stanford men’s basketball had an exhibition game against Sonoma State scheduled for Wednesday, October 28, but it was cancelled due to the extensive power outages and regional disruptions from the Kincade Fire. Stanford Athletics made the announcement on Tuesday night.

As a result, Sonoma State University will be closed until November 4th. All campus activities, along with athletic events, have been cancelled and teams are unable to travel off campus at this time.

All single game buyers will be refunded the price of the ticket, plus any applicable fees. Since the exhibition game was included in Season Ticket Memberships at no charge, there will be no refunds issued.

NOTES: Check out Stanford’s latest compilation video of their top-notch players using the link below.

UP NEXT: Stanford hosts Montana in its season opener on Wednesday, November 6th, at 7 p.m.

SJSU’s Gaither is back and as fast as ever

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Photo credit: sjsuspartans.com

By Ana Kieu

Bailey Gaither is fast.

Gaither runs fast. Gaither talks fast. One cut, one wiggle and Gaither’s a blur down the field.

The slow slog of injury rehab, however, made the senior wide receiver appreciate that speed even more.

Last year as a junior, Gaither was off to a quick start, with six catches for 137 yards and two touchdowns against UC Davis. He had two more catches against Washington State and grabbed six balls for 90 yards at Oregon. In the Mountain West opener against Hawaii, Gaither had already made a 42-yard catch in the first quarter. Then, in the second quarter, the Paso Robles, Calif., native took a Josh Love pass 55 yards to the house for a touchdown. It was his last play of the season.

“I was running and a guy clipped the back of my foot and I landed funny,” Gaither said. “I had to hop in to the endzone. That was that.”

Gaither tore his Achilles tendon on the play. Just as he was starting to take off as the Spartans’ go-to deep threat, Gaither faced surgery and a long rehabilitation process.

Almost every day for seven months, Gaither got up in the morning and headed to the training room in the Simpkins Stadium Center. He’d do exercises to strengthen his repaired Achilles. Exercises to get the range of motion and flexibility back. It was a lot of heat and ice and work.

With all that, Gaither still thinks the mental part of rehab was the most difficult.

“Trusting myself, telling myself that I’m going to be okay, that I’ll get through it,” Gaither said. “Dealing with myself mentally.”

The mental side of rehab for Gaither included dealing with the false alarms. A string of good days would be spoiled by a painful morning. But that’s all part of the process.

“It’s such a tedious injury,” Gaither said. “It’s hard to tell people that you feel better one day and then worse the next. I didn’t like having to tell people that I was hurting, I wanted to be better. But I needed to be honest with myself. You push it one day and the next day it hurts. Sometimes if you went too easy it would hurt the next day. Rehab is a jagged line, it’s not smooth.”

Eventually, the ins and outs of rehab started to level out. Seven months after surgery, Gaither was able to do the thing he does so well. Run.

Gaither wasn’t able to cut yet, but the straight-line speed that has made him a weapon for the Spartans was still there. He could still get up and go.

“That was definitely the worst injury I’ve had in my life,” Gaither said. “I had my family supporting me through it and all my close friends. The rehab was tough, but it made me stronger.”

Gaither’s family includes his mom, dad and younger brother. Growing up, Gaither used his speed to become a multi-sport star at Paso Robles High School. The 6’1″ wide receiver racked up 3,277 yards receiving and 41 touchdowns over three varsity seasons. He was also the San Luis Obispo Country Player of the Year as a shortstop, hitting .500 his junior year with 32 stolen bases. With colleges calling with offers for both sports, Gaither decided to follow his friend and high school football teammate, Josh Oliver, to San Jose State.

After a redshirt season and limited playing time as a freshman and sophomore, Gaither was enjoying his breakout junior year until going down against Hawaii. The adversity has made his standout senior season even sweeter.

Heading into Saturday’s showdown against No. 21 Boise State, Gaither has been on the receiving end of 27 passes from fellow fifth-year senior quarterback Josh Love for 491 yards and four touchdowns. Love has experienced his own sets of ups and downs during his career, something the pair has bonded over.

“Me and Josh have been friends through this whole process,” Gaither said. “Both a little overlooked when we first got here. Not really in the picture. Kudos to him, he worked really hard for this. He deserves this. A bunch of different coaches and staffs, we’ve been through it all together. New beginnings have been good to us.”

Throughout Gaither’s rehab process, one goal he had was to get back to where he left off. Not only figuratively — starting a season strong and becoming a go-to target — but literally as well. He wanted to get back into the endzone, the place where we was helped off the field a year earlier.

It took a little while, until the Spartans’ fifth game of the season. Against New Mexico on October 4, Gaither showed off his trademark speed with an 80-yard touchdown bomb from Love. Crossing the goal line, Gaither couldn’t help but soak in the moment.

“It just felt so good,” Gaither said. “It felt so good, like this is where I’m supposed to be.”

Back to blazing down the field. Back in the end zone. It took a long time to get back to that place, but Gaither has made quick work of reclaiming his role as the Spartans’ deep threat.

Headline Sports podcast with Barbara Mason: Raiders finally return home Sunday; 49ers in Arizona on Thursday Night Football; plus more

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photo sfgate.com: Oakland Raiders wide receiver Tyrell Williams (16) is hit by Houston Texans defensive back Keion Crossen (35) after a catch during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019, in Houston.

On the Headline Sports podcast with Barbara:

#1 The Oakland Raiders completed their five-game, six-week out of town road trip on Sunday to the tune of a 27-24 loss. The Raiders went 2-3 on the trip and are 3-4 in the AFC West.

#2 The San Francisco 49ers continue to pull it off with another shocker win, 51-13, over the Carolina Panthers. The 49ers remain perfect at 7-0.

#3 The Golden State Warriors are no longer three time World Champions and are the talk of the town but in a bad way are 1-3 and since they lost a core of who they were from last season including Kevin Durant the team is trying to find their way after a win past 0-4 New Orleans.

#4 The Cal Bears continue to be challenged dropping their fourth straight game. Now, Cal is a .500 team and play host to Washington State on Nov. 9th. The Cougars are struggling too. They’ve lost four of their last five.

#5 The San Jose Sharks faced off against Boston and dropped another one 5-1 on Tuesday night and lost their fifth of their last six games winning only one game on this concluded road trip.

Barbara does Headline Sports each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Bruins pounce on Sharks in dominating 5-1 win

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Photo credit: @NHLBruins

By Marko Ukalovic

BOSTON, Mass- The San Jose Sharks got into penalty trouble early and often and the Boston Bruins made them pay for their indiscretions in a 5-1 victory — that featured five different goal scorers — on Tuesday evening at TD Garden.

Boston is currently undefeated in their last eight games (6-0-2), while San Jose limps back home licking their wounds after a disappointing 1-3-1 Northeast road trip. Once again the Sharks’ defensive woes were the story of the game as the Bruins had numerous scoring chances during the game.

Boston (9-1-2) drew first blood on the power play just under eight minutes into the first period. A failed clearing attempt by Brenden Dillon found the stick of Patrice Bergeron who faked a shot and sent a cross ice pass over to David Pastrnak who was all alone on the left side when he buried a one-timer past Sharks goalie Martin Jones for his 12th goal of the season, which leads the NHL, at the 7:49 mark.

Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer challenged the call for offsides, but after the video review, the officials upheld the goal, which resulted in a minor penalty and second consecutive power play opportunity, which the Sharks were able to kill off.

The Bruins capitalized on their third power play opportunity late in the opening 20 minutes. Brad Marchand sent the puck back up to the point where Torey Krug touched pass it over to the David Krejci, who wristed a one-timer underneath the arm of Jones for his first goal of the season at the 17:51 mark.

“We’re definitely going through a tough time right now,” said captain Logan Couture. “You gotta go through some adversity at some point in the year. It’s been too long to stay in the rut. We gotta respond at some point.”

San Jose (4-8-1) opened up the second period with a power play goal of their own to cut the deficit to 2-1. After a faceoff win, Erik Karlsson fed the puck over to Brent Burns  from the point. Burns made one move and lasered a wrist shot under the arm of Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask for his third goal of the season at the 1:31 mark. Burns leads the Sharks with 13 points.

Boston regained their two-goal lead seconds after a tripping penalty to Tomas Hertl had ended. Krejci gathered the puck after a deflection and sent a shot-pass over to Charlie Coyle, former Sharks draft pick, who had inside position on Marc-Edouard Vlasic and  knocked it home from the crease for his second goal of the season less than four minutes later at the 5:21 mark.

Chris Wagner took advantage off a turnover by Tim Heed to give the Bruins a 4-1 lead. Heed’s attempted cross ice pass heeled off his stick over to of David Backes, who quickly outletted a pass up the ice that sent Wagner on a breakaway. Wagner made one move before sliding the puck past Jones’ five-hole for his first goal of the season at the 8:31 mark.

“It was a game of mistakes,” said Burns. “It’s tough (to get the offense going) when you’re playing in your own zone a lot against a team like that. They’re going to capitalize (on their chances).”

Boston scored its third unanswered goal of the period when Wagner won a battle along the boards and sent the puck back up to the point where Brando Carlo wristed a knuckle-ball of a shot that appeared to glance off a Sharks’ body and went over the left shoulder of Jones for his second goal of the season at the 16:50 mark.

Despite the goals scored, it could have been much worse in the second period if not for some incredible saves from Jones in a four-minute stretch where he faced numerous odd man rushes from Boston thanks to the pourous San Jose defense. Boston outshot San Jose 18-6 in the middle frame.

Things got chippy in the third period when Evander Kane went up high on Charlie McAvoy with Zdeno Chara going after Kane and Dillion coming to the aid of his forward. Both Chara and Dillon received minor penalties for roughing. Fights from Barclay Goodrow/Brett Richie and Couture/Marchand ended their nights early as they were all given game misconduct penalties after their scrums.

“We’re a little fragile right now,” said DeBoer. “You can see that. You’re at the end of a road trip and you take eight minor penalties, five in the first two periods, against the best power play in the league. We have to be smarter in helping ourselves.”

Rask finished the game with 16 saves on 17 shots to earn the win. Jones, who should have received a purple heart medal after the game, stopped 36 of the 41 shots he faced in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose went 1/3 on the power play. Boston was 2/8. The Sharks came into the game with the number one penalty kill in the NHL and had killed off 14 penalty kills in a row before Pastrnak’s power play goal.

Bergeron recorded his 499th assist of his NHL career.

It was the first game in NHL history that featured three players (Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Chara) with an over combined 4700 career games played.

UP NEXT: The Sharks return home to host the Winnipeg Jets on Friday, November 1 at 7:30 pm in the SAP Center.

San Francisco 49ers podcast with David Zizmor: No one is doubting the 49ers now

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photo from sfgate.com: San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa runs with the ball after making an interception during the second half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019.

On the 49ers podcast with David:

#1 No doubt that the 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and the offense killed it on Sunday 51-13 against Carolina Panthers to improve to 7-0.

#2 The defense just handled the Panthers allowing the only 13 points. It got to point where the 49ers bench had to get into the game.

David Zizmor does the 49ers podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: Nationals come into Game 6 with backs to the wall

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photo from chron.com: Houston Astros left fielder Michael Brantley (23) is high-fived by members of the Astros coaching staff after the team’s 7-1 win of Game 5 of the World Series at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019.

On Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast:

#1 With the Washington Nationals’ Max Scherzer out as a starter for Game 6 on Tuesday night in Houston and the Astros leading the series 3-2, the Nationals have their backs to the wall.

#2 In Game 2, the Nationals took a 12-3 win to take a 2-0 lead. At that point, it looked like the Nats could win the whole thing, but obviously, it would be almost miraculous if they could even keep up with Houston.

#3 On Sunday night, the Astros trounced the Nationals for a 7-1 to take the current 3-2 lead, and in Sunday’s game, the Nationals simply could not get any offense working to make any noise.

#4 The Houston Astros are granting permission to bench coach Joe Espada to talk with the San Francisco Giants for a second interview for the manager’s job. Espada met with Giants operations manager Farhan Zaidi and CEO Larry Baer for 4 1/2 hours last Thursday and at great length on Monday.

#5 The Astros became the fourth team in pro sports to lead in road victories. They’re undefeated in the series going 3-0 in Washington.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the Oakland A’s on KIQI 1010 San Francisco and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com