Toronto Marlies center Joesph Blandisi toppled over San Jose Barracuda winger Thomas Bordeleau during the Marlies 3-2 win over the Barracuda at Tech CU Arena on Saturday JAN 25, 2025. (San Jose Barracuda)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — Logan Shaw scored the game winning goal on the power play a minute into overtime to give the Toronto Marlies a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Barracuda on Saturday afternoon at Tech CU Arena.

San Jose have lost three out of their last four games. Toronto has won four games in a row.

Shaw cleaned up the rebound off of an Alex Steeves shot from the left slot for his fifth goal of the season at the 1:05 mark of the overtime period that completed a comeback for the Marlies who were down 2-0 after the opening 20 minutes.

Toronto (22-10-2-3-49 points), who made its first ever trip to the South Bay, had the game’s first scoring opportunity when Jimmy Schuldt went into the sinbin for hooking at the 11:20 mark of the first period. ‘Cuda goalie Georgi Romanov and San Jose’s penalty kill kept the Marlies off the board.

San Jose (21-13-2-2-46 points) took advantage of their power play opportunity three minutes later as they drew first blood. Danil Gushchin sent a pass out to Collin White that bounced off of him over to Andrew Poturalski and he blasted a one-timer top shelf past Marlies’ goalie Dennis Hildeby for his team leading 18th goal of the season at the 16:12 mark.

It was also the Barracuda captain’s team leading eighth power play goal of the season that has him tied for second place in the AHL.

The Barracuda doubled its lead early in the second period just after its second power play opportunity had expired. Ethan Cardwell sent a pass to the net from the left boards that deflected off of Tristen Robins. A crashing Jack Thompson cleaned up the rebound into an open net for his second goal of the season at the 1:44 mark. Thompson has scored in back-to-back games for San Jose.

Toronto cut San Jose’s lead in half with an even strength goal late in the middle frame. Off a faceoff win, Joseph Blandisi skated around up to before finding Alex Steeves along the right slot and the Marlie winger rifled home a slap shot past Romanov for his team leading 22nd goal of the season at the 12:18 mark.

The Marlies scored the equalizer with 1:25 left in the period after a clean faceoff win that mirrored their first goal. Logan Shaw won the faceoff back up to the slot and Nick Abruzzese lasered a one-timer to top shelf to the far post that Romanov never saw for his 10th goal of the season.

“Yeah, I thought we got in trouble turning over pucks in the neutral zone. They were able to get back in it. And then at the end we had a shot. I liked our resiliency to come back with the goalie out on the PK actually. Obviously, the penalty caught up to us in overtime,” ‘Cuda head coach John McCarthy said.

Toronto gained its first lead of the game a second after its power play opportunity expired early in the third period. After killing off the majority of a double-minor penalty by Marshall Rifai, the Marlies gained momentum and drew a penalty against Donovan Houle.

The Cuda failed to clear the puck out of its own zone with seconds left on the minor to Houle. Zach Solow sent a pass toward the middle of the crease and Blandisi redirected the puck past Romanov for his seventh goal of the season at the 6:22 mark.

Jimmy Schuldt sent the game to overtime when he scored the equalizer with 14 seconds left in the period, a short-handed goal, when his shot from the left boards deflected off of a Marlies defender’s skate in the crease and into the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season.

Hildeby (5-2-2-1) finished the game stopping 30 of the 33 shots he faced to earn his fifth victory of the season. Romanov (9-7-1) made 26 saves on 30 shots in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished 1-for-5 on the power play. Toronto went 0-for-4.

The Three Stars of the Game: 1) Shaw (1G, 1A) 2) Blandisi (1G, 1A) 3) Abruzzese (1G).

UP NEXT: San Jose and Toronto conclude their two-game weekend series on Sunday 1/26 at 2:00pm at Tech CU Arena.