Category: San Jose Barracuda

By: Eric He

sjbarracuda.com photo: You gotta keep em separated–An AHL official steps in between players from the Stockton Heat (left) and San Jose Barracuda (right) during Saturday night’s game in Stockton

In a back-and-forth contest, the San Jose Barracuda dropped their season opener 3-2 to the Stockton Heat on the road to kick off the season.

With the game tied 2-2, Stockton’s Ryan Lomberg scored the game-winning goal with under five minutes left in regulation, stripping the puck from the stick of the Barracuda defenseman Tim Heed and beat Troy Gosenick with a chip shot up high.

It was the final straw of a string over giveaways that cost the Barracuda on Saturday. Nikolay Goldobin’s outlet pass in the first period was picked off by Matt Frattin, who scored to tie the game 1-1.

Stockton’s second goal came off a turnover by defenseman Mirco Mueller. Mueller was picked from behind by the Heat’s Garnet Hathaway, leading to a goal by Hunter Shinkaruk to give the Heat the lead.

The Barracuda, though, hung in the game despite the setbacks. They scored first on a strong individual effort by Danny O’Regan, who turned defense into offense, blocking a shot in his zone and taking it the other way for a goal.

Down 2-1, San Jose evened the score midway through the third courtesy of Barclay Goodrow on a goal off a face-off.

Grosenick made 30 saves on 33 shots as the Heat outshot the Barracuda by three. Both teams were 0-for-2 on the power play.

The Barracuda’s next game is a week from Saturday when they face the Ontario Reign on the road.

by Ana Kieu

sanjosebarracuda.com photo: San Jose Barracuda goaltender Troy Grosenick faced 16 shots and allowed five goals to the Bakersfield Condors in exhibition play at Sharks Ice on Sunday night

SAN JOSE– Alex Schoenborn made his debut with the San Jose Barracuda, who hosted the Bakersfield Condors in an exhibition game in Sharks Ice on Sunday night. The Condors were quick out of the gate, netting their first goal 3:32 into the first period, courtesy of Jaedon Descheneau. San Jose goalie Troy Grosenick reacted late to a low shot from the left circle, allowing Bakersfield to take an early 1-0 lead.

Barracuda forward Alex Gallant was given a two minute penalty for roughing at 9:39. Joey Benik made it 2-0 Condors with a power play goal midway through the first.  Kyle Platzer looked assured in the game as he added another power play goal for the Condors for a 3-0 lead at 14:47. Barracuda defenseman Harrison Ruopp was initially called for tripping at 14:35.

The Barracuda outshot the Condors (16-10), however, Grosenick surrendered two goals on the first six shots on goal. San Jose trailed Bakersfield 3-0 after 20 minutes. Josh Brittain’s first goal of the preseason extended the Condors’ lead to 4-0 at 11:35 of the second period. Four minutes and three seconds later, Bakersfield was up 5-0, courtesy of Scott Allen.

Barracuda defenseman Tim Heed had a couple of clever reads and added pressure to the puck carrier. However, San Jose continued to trail the Condors 5-0 after 40 minutes. While Marcus Sorensen helped the Barracuda avoid a shutout with a last-minute goal with eight seconds left in regulation, San Jose fell 5-1 to Bakersfield in the final exhibition game.

Nothing is more depressing than a tough loss at home, but the lackluster game served as learning experience for the young Barracuda club.When I asked goalie Troy Grosenick if he was going to do anything differently in preparation for Saturday to make a comeback and pick up a win, he simply responded with: “No, I felt like I had a really positive camp and I don’t think this has been indicative of the way things have been going lately and we’re just going to go back to the drawing board on Tuesday.”

“It’s just the preseason,” head coach Roy Sommer said. “I thought we did a lot of good stuff. It wasn’t really a 5-0 game, but we had a lot of good looks. . .I thought our forechecking kept them in there for a while.” The Barracuda will head to Stockton Arena on Saturday to take on the Stockton Heat in their first game of the 2016-17 AHL regular season. In honor of Opening Night, magnetic schedules will be given to the first 1,500 fans in attendance.

 

 

By: Eric He

photo by the San Jose Barracuda: The Barracuda congratulate the Ontario Reign after loosing the first round of the playoffs three games to one

The San Jose Barracuda’s season came to an end on Friday night with a 4-1 loss to the Ontario Reign in Game 4 of the Pacific Division Semifinals, falling 3-1 in the best-of-five series.

Up 2-1 heading into the third period, the Reign scored twice in the final stanza to pull away and clinch the series.

Like in Game 3, the Barracuda felt behind early. Midway through the first period, Nic Dowd scored on a rebound to give the Reign a 1-0 lead.

But San Jose evened the score midway through the second period on a Jeremy Langlois deflection goal. The tie would be short-lived, though.

As Aaron Dell was screened, Justin Auger’s shot got through and in two minutes later to regain the lead for the Barracuda, and Ontario led 2-1 heading into the third.

Jordan Samuels-Thomas opened up a two-goal lead for the Reign five minutes into the third and Andrew Crescenzi put the game away with an empty-net goal as the Barracuda failed to muster much offense in the final period to keep their season alive.

The Barracuda were outshot 35-19 by the Reign and will now prepare for the 2016-2017 season.

By: Joe Lami

photo by San Jose Barracuda

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Despite being outshot 36-15, the San Jose Barracuda were able to defeat the Ontario Reign 3-2 on Saturday night at SAP Center at San Jose. With the win, the Barracuda tie up the Pacific Division Semi-Final playoff at one game a piece in the best of five series.

Even though, the Reign had more than double the amount of shots as the Barracuda, the game seemed really tight with Ontario not getting great chances. “It was like a chess match out there, not a lot of chances on both sides. They did outshoot us, but quality wise they had a few good ones, but Dell was good when he needed to be and we scored when we needed to,” said Barracuda coach, Roy Sommer.

After battling deflections off in the first period, Reign goaltender Peter Budaj finally let one through after Ryan Carpenter got a piece of a Joakim Ryan shot to give San Jose’s first goal at 3:58 of the second period.

The Barracuda added to their lead ten minutes later, as captain Bryan Lerg showed off his strength with a beautiful power move coming in off the right boards and crashing the net hard, sneaking the puck past Budaj to make it 2-0. Ryan picked up his second assist of the game and ‘Cuda goaltender Aaron Dell earned his second assist of the series helping break out the play. “I beat the D wide, buried the shoulder and went to the far post to see what happens,” said Lerg.

Ontario made it interesting, opening up the scoring just 2:40 into the third period. Kurtis MacDermid picked up his second goal of the series on a rocket wrist shot from the right point. Dell didn’t even have a chance at making the save.

San Jose scored the game winning goal at 8:23 after a beautiful give and goal between Nikolay Goldobin and Jeremy Langlois in which Langlois fed it cross crease for an easy tap in for Goldobin. Ryan picked up the secondary assist, earning his third point of the night. “That’s one of those things you work on in practice. You kick it wide and have a middle lane drive. It’s good when it works out,” added Langlois.

After pulling their goalie with two minutes remaining in the game, Ontario used it to their advantage tallying their second goal with .35 seconds remaining. Jonny Brodzinski scored his second of the series after a beautiful no-look backhand pass from Nick Dowd on the side wall for an easy tap in. However, it would be too little too late, as San Jose was able to close out the rest of the game to secure the victory.

The first round series continues on Thursday in Ontario with game three.

By: Eric He

photo by the San Jose Barracuda

The San Jose Barracuda played a tight contest against the Ontario Reign on Friday night in Game 1 of the Pacific Division Semifinals, but came up short in a 2-1 defeat at SAP Center on Friday night.

Trailing 1-0 heading into the third period, the Barracuda got the tying goal six minutes in courtesy of Nikita Jevpalovs, who finished off a beautiful toe drag to even the score.

But with less than five minutes to go, Jonny Brodzinski recorded the game-winning tally for Ontario, scoring from point-blank after being left wide open in front.

It was a scoreless first period, and the game’s first goal did not come until the 40th shot of the game on a long blast by the Reign’s Kurtis MacDermid.

The Barracuda failed to score on four power play opportunities and the Reign outshot the Barracuda 37-29.

Game 2 will be Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the SAP Center.

By Matthew T.F. Harrington

photo credit San Jose Barracuda: Barracuda celebrate on home ice at SAP Center after clinching for a playoff spot in 6-0 win over the Stockton Heat on Sunday

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Sunday afternoon’s contest at the SAP Center was do-or-die for the San Jose Barracuda. The math was simple; earning a single point from the game would put them in the Calder Cup Playoffs in their inaugural season. Losing in regulation meant the Charlotte Checkers would move over to the Western Conference, taking the final spot by virtue of a higher points-percentage.

“To be honest with you, I was a nervous wreck all day,” added Barracuda coach Roy Sommer.

With everything at stake, coach Roy Sommer’s charges responded to the pressure with a dominant 5-0 blanking of the visiting Stockton Heat.

“It’s hard to get into the playoffs,” said Sommer. “It means your team has to be doing something right.”

6 different players scored, and Jeremey Morin, Nikolay Goldobin and Jeremy Langlois notched multi-point games for playoff bound Barracuda (31-26-8-3). Aaron Dell made 41 saves for his 4^th shutout of the season, denying the Stockton Heat (32-32-2-2) an opportunity to play spoiler.

“We could have gone with Grosenick today,” said Sommer. “(Dell) is the one who earned where he’s sitting right now. I went back with him and I thought he was excellent tonight.”

Barracuda forward Barclay Goodrow must have been taken notes on his sometimes-teammate with the San Jose Sharks Joe Pavelski. Goodrow opened the game’s scoring 5:11 into play on an identical move to the Shark’s captain’s game-winning goal in the opening game of the Stanley Cup playoffs against Los Angeles.

Goodrow skated with the puck behind the Heat net, turned the corner around the cage and about-faced to square up with the goal. The winger elevated the puck past Stockton goaltender Nick Schneider for his 20^th tally, moving him into a tie with Nikolay Goldobin for the team lead at that time. The tandem of former Ivy League defenseman Gus Young and Joakim Ryan assisted on the goal.

“I thought he was one of our better players tonight,” said Sommer. “He played heavily, went to the net, did a lot of good things.”

San Jose struck once again 1:28 later on tenacious work along the board by Jeremy Langlois. The hard-nosed winger took puck along the boards behind Schneider’s right shoulder while avoiding being checked off the puck. From there, Langlois dropped the puck along the wall to Goldobin. Goldobin slid the puck back to Langlois who had peeled off into the slot for a one-timer. Langlois ripped the puck past Schneider for his 12^th of the campaign.

“You could sense it in the dressing room,” said Sommer. “The intensity in the dressing room. The first ten minutes meant business.”

The Barracuda added a pair of goals in the 2^nd period with the first strike coming on a piece of smooth passing from the San Jose captain. Bryan Lerg took a puck to Schneider’s right and slid it to a crashing Trevor Parkes. Parkes redirected the puck past Schneider’s left toe for his 18^th goal of the season and 3^rd of the weekend to put San Jose up 3-0 12:54 into the period.

Goldobin wrestled the scoring lead away from Goodrow just outside the final minute of the period. The Russian winger lifted a puck over Schneider that sent the keeper’s water bottle soaring for a commanding 4-0 lead. Langlois (1g, 1a) and Jeremey Moring (2a) picked up their second points of the evening, assisting on Goldobin’s 21^st goal of the year.

“It’s hard to score 20 goals in the American League as a vet, let alone a rookie,” said Sommer. “The talent is coming to the forefront with him. Other coaches are saying ‘Man, that 82 is something.’”

Morin notched his 3^rd point of the game on his 16^th goal of the season, giving the Barracuda plenty of distance in the opening minutes of the 3^rd period.

Noted pugilist Alex Gallant used his hands for something other than fighting, netting his first career AHL goal with 29.4 second remaining in the 3^rd. Jordan Sims assisted on the goal for his first point with the Barracuda.

By virtue of earning the final spot in the big dance, the Barracuda will face off against Los Angeles Kings affiliate, the Ontario Reign. The Kings AHL affiliate in 2015, the Manchester Monarchs, took home the Calder Cup last season before LA bumped Ontario up from the ECHL. The Barracuda went 3-6-3 against Ontario in the season series.

“We played them pretty hard all year,” said Sommer. “We played really tight. They haven’t been blowouts by any means.”

“They’ve had our number all year,” added forward Trevor Parkes. “But every game has been a one-goal game. We’ve got all week to prepare.”