San Jose Barracuda players Shakir Mukhamadullin (#85), Leon Gawanke (#26) and Danil Gushchin (#75) celebrate their second period goal against the Calgary Wranglers at Tech CU Arena on Friday DEC 15, 2023. (San Jose Barracuda)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Barracuda took advantage of a five-minute power play as they defeated the Calgary Wranglers in 3-0 shutout victory on Friday evening at Tech CU Arena.

San Jose has won two games in a row. Calgary is 5-2-1 over its past eight games.

“I think the group did a good job recognizing we got more (to our game). We had a pretty hard week of practice to get ready for tonight and I thought the guys responded pretty well,” ‘Cuda head coach John McCarthy said.

The opening frame featured a scoreless 20 minutes as the Wranglers edged the Barracuda in shots 10-9 in a first period that didn’t feature many stoppages of play. Each team had a short power play opportunity to no avail.

San Jose (7-11-4-0) goalie Eetu Makiniemi made two point-blank saves near the end of the first period to keep the deadlock intact. Calgary (16-5-2-0) goalie Oscar Dansk made a point-blank chance from Brandon Coe as the highlight for the Wranglers.

The ‘Cuda broke the deadlock late in the second period with an even strength goal. Danil Gushchin led a rush into the Wranglers zone. He found Leon Gawanke along the right boards. Gawanke then found Shakir Mukhamadullin in the center of the ice and the rookie defenseman sent a seeing-eyed wrist through a sea of traffic for his third goal of the season at the 14:35 mark.

“He (Mukhamadullin) has made a lot of strides. I think his breakout skills have improved. Using his net, skating using his retrievals. He’s been able to beat his forecheckers, which is something we’ve been working on with him and it’s starting to show up in his game,” McCarthy said.

A scary situation happened with three seconds left in the middle frame. Dryden Hunt ran into Cole Cassels at center ice that resulted in a five-minute major penalty on Hunt for interference and an automatic ejection. Cassels, who was visibly upset on the play, did not sustain an injury.

Thomas Bordeleau made the Wranglers pay during the extended power play early in the third period with a 4-on-3 goal. Gawanke sent a rink wide pass over to Bordeleau who blasted a one-timer past Dansk for his seventh goal of the season at the 1:01 mark.

Nathan Todd scored the ‘Cuda’s third unanswered goal and second on the extended power play when he came into the Wranglers goals unattended and beat Dansk to the short side with a wrist shot for his fifth goal of the season at the 3:14 mark.

Todd has a point in six consecutive games with eight points during the streak.

Makiniemi (3-2-0) stopped all 22 shots he faced to earn his first shutout and third win of the season. Dansk (6-2-2) made 34 saves on 37 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 2-for-7 on the power play. Calgary went 0-for-2.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Mukhamadullin 2) Gawanke 3) Makiniemi.

UP NEXT: San Jose and Calgary conclude their two-game series on Saturday 12/16 at 6:00pm at Tech CU Arena.