San Jose Barracuda forward Scott Sabourin (#49) redirects a puck past Iowa Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt (#30) for his first goal of the season at Tech CU Arena on Sunday OCT 20, 2024.

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — The San Jose Barracuda scored five goals in the second period to route the Iowa Wild 7-3 on Sunday afternoon at Tech CU Arena.

San Jose swept the two-game series and has jumped out to a great start in the young season. Iowa remained defeated through their first four games.

San Jose (3-1-0) drew first blood early in the first period with an even strength goal. Anthony Vincent sent the puck back up to the point to Luca Cagnoni. The rookie defenseman skated in from the left wing and lasered in a wrist shot just inside the near post past Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt for his second goal of the season at the 2:08 mark.

The Barracuda doubled its lead 24 seconds later. Collin Graf found Justin Bailey inside the Wild zone. Bailey skated in all alone and beat Wallstedt to the far side with a wrist shot for his first goal of the season at the 2:36 mark.

Iowa (0-4-0) answered back 35 seconds later. Micheal Milne sent a cross-ice pass over to Hunter Haight who buried a wrist shot past Cuda goalie Georgi Romanov for his first goal of the season at the 3:01 mark.

The Cuda regained their two-goal lead late in the second period thanks to a great individual play from Lucas Vanroboys in the neutral zone. Vanroboys collected a loose puck near the red line then skated around three Wild defenders before tucking the puck underneath the pads of Wallstedt inside the crease for his first goal of the season at the 13:23 mark.

San Jose went up 4-1 with a power play goal exactly two minutes later. Ethan Cardwell sent the puck from the left wing into the middle of the crease where Scott Sabourin redirected the puck past Wallstedt for his first goal of the season at the 15:23 mark.

Iowa cut the lead in half on the next shift. An odd man rush led to Cameron Crotty finding Haight in the left slot and Haight beat Romanov with a wrist shot to the short side for his second goal of the game at the 15:50 mark.

San Jose made Iowa pay on their next shift. Brandon Coe sent a backhanded pass through the crease to an unmarked Filip Bystedt in front of the crease and the Swedish center buried the puck into the back of the net for his second goal of the season at the 16:03 mark.

The Barracuda weren’t done yet as over a minute and a half later they increased their cushion by four goals. Colin White cleaned up a rebound off a shot from the point by Cagnoni for his second goal of the season at the 17:40 mark.

San Jose scored its fifth goal of the period when Ethan Frisch fired a slapshot from the left point past Wallstedt for his first goal of the season at the 18:07 mark. Donovan Houle picked up his second point of the game with the primary assist. That ended the night for Wallstedt as he gave up seven goals on 25 shots. Backup goalie Samuel Hlavaj replaced Wallstedt to start the third period.

The Wild scored its third goal at the halfway mark of the third period.

Romanov earned his first victory of the season as he stopped 36 of the 39 shots he faced. Hlavaj only faced five shots in the final 20 minutes and saved all five.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 1-for-3 on the power play. Iowa went 0-for-2.

San Jose is 10-4-2-0 all time versus the Wild including 6-1-2-0 at home.

The Three Stars of the Game were: 1) Sabourin 2) Haight 3) Cagnoni.

UP NEXT: San Jose takes on the Henderson Silver Knights on Wednesday 10/23 at 7:00pm at Dollar Loan Center.