Ontario Reign forward Taylor Ward celebrates his goal along the wall with his teammates against the San Jose Barracuda at Tech CU Arena on Friday OCT 31, 2025. (San Jose Barracuda)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — It was ghoulish night for the first ever game played on Halloween in the franchise history of the San Jose Barracuda.

The Ontario Reign played the role of Frankenstein’s monster with a four goal second period en route to a 6-1 blowout victory on Friday evening at the haunted house known as Tech CU Arena.

San Jose has lost three out of its last four games. Ontario has won four out of its last five games.

Ontario (5-2-1) drew first blood early in the first period. Martin Chromiak centered a pass from behind the net out to Taylor Ward whose initial shot was stopped by Cuda goalie Jakub Skarek. Ward fought through a check in front of the crease and collected his own rebound and beat Skarek for his fourth goal of the season at the 4:48 mark.

San Jose (2-5-0) responded a power play goal late in the opening frame. A shot from the point by Luca Cagnoni was stopped by a sprawled-out Reign goalie Erik Portillo in front of a sea of traffic. Colin White pounced in from the point and his shot attempt hit off of Oliver Wahlstrom after a mad scramble in front of the crease for Wahlstrom’s first goal of in a Cuda sweater at the 18:09 mark.

It was the seventh consecutive game San Jose has conceded the game’s first goal. Ward has seven points in his past two games.

The Reign regained the lead with an even strength goal early on in the second period. Koehn Ziemmer’s shot from the right wing was redirected past Skarek by for his third goal of the season at the 6:59 mark.

Ontario went up by two goals after a turnover by San Jose in the neutral zone at the halfway mark of the middle frame. Samuel Bolduc skated in on a breakaway before sliding a backhander through the five-hole of Skarek for his fourth goal of the season at the 10:27 mark.

The Reign scored its third unanswered goal in the period. A shot from the point caromed off of both posts before Jack Hughes poked home the rebound at the 12:40 mark. Ziemmer and Angus Booth were credited with the assists on Hughes’ first goal of the season.

That was the end of the night Skarek as Cuda head coach John McCarthy inserted backup goalie Gabriel Carriere. Skarek went to the showers with 13 saves on 17 shots.

San Jose immediately didn’t do any better after the goalie change. Jakub Dvorak made it 5-1 with a four-on-four game at the 13:47 mark. Ward sent a cross-ice pass over to Dvorak who beat Carriere with a one-timer top shelf for his first goal of the season.

Kenny Connors made it five straight unanswered goals for Ontario as the puck deflected off of Cagnoni and Connors fired a shot past Carriere for his first career AHL goal at the 4:32 mark of the third period.

Portillo finished the game stopping all but one of the 36 shots he faced to earn his third win of the season. Carriere made four saves on six shots in mop up duty.

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

UP NEXT: San Jose and Ontario conclude their two-game weekend series on Saturday November 1st at 6:00pm at Tech CU Arena.