San Jose Barracuda vs Onatrio Reign on Saturday December 20th at Toyota Arena (via flickr/ontarioreign)

By Madison Montez

Egor Afanasyev opened up the scoring and put San Jose up on top first. In his first game back since his injury, Colin White registered the secondary assist. Five minutes later, Martin Chromiak of the Ontario Reign made teddy bears fly all over to tie the game at 1-1 a piece.

Shorthanded, Andre Lee gave Ontario their first lead of the game. After Cole Guttman was given a ten minute misconduct, Egor Afanasyev tied the game for his second goal of the game.

With their second powerplay goal of the game, Oliver Wahlstrom gave San Jose their lead back. Musty, who drew the penalty that put them on the powerplay, registered the primary assist. With 45 seconds left of the game, Andre Lee tied the game at three to send the game into overtime. After a scoreless overtime period, it headed to a shootout.

Round one, both teams scored. Round two, Bystedt missed and Ward missed. Round three, Afanasyev scored, Chromiak missed. Skarek with the save, Barracuda win 4-3.

Both teams showed off their special teams in Saturday night’s game. San Jose took advantage and went two for eight on the powerplay while Ontario went zero for four. Coming into Saturday night’s game, San Jose had the advantage on the powerplay, ranking first in the Pacific Divison. On the other hand, Ontario had the upper hand on San Jose on the penalty kill, ranking third while being shorthanded in the Pacific Division.

Being such a close game, the shots were also very close. After the first period, Ontario outshot San Jose 8-7. After the second period, both teams shot the same, seven shots. After the third period, Ontario outshot San Jose ten to seven.

Jakub Skarek, who made 19 saves on 21 shots, recorded Saturday night’s win. His record now improves to 10-3-0-1. For Ontario, Isaiah Saville got the start in the net. He recorded 18 saves on 21 shots and his record now moves to 4-2-0-1.

THREE STARS OF THE GAME:

1. Egor Afanasyev
2. Andre Lee
3. Martin Chromiak

The Barracuda will be back in action Sunday December 21st at the Toyota Center in Ontario for 3:00pm PT, wrapping up their roadtrip against these same Reign. They will be looking to the series. Gabriel Carriere and Mattias Sholl are expected to make the starts in net.