San Jose Barracuda podcast with Marko Ukalovic: Barracuda look to snap five game skid Wednesday night at Tech CU

The Calgary Wranglers swept the San Jose Barracuda in a two game set on Fri Feb 10, 2023 and Sat Feb 11, 2023 nights at Tech CU Arena in San Jose (photo by the San Jose Barracuda)

On the Barracuda podcast with Marko:

#1 Matthew Phillips scored the winning goal in the shootout to give the Calgary Wranglers a 5-4 victory over the San Jose Barracuda (18-25-0-4) on Saturday evening at Tech CU Arena.

#2 San Jose has lost five games in a row. Calgary has won three games in a row and swept the two-game series with San Jose.

#3 Calgary (33-11-2-0) drew first blood late in the first period. Emilio Pettersen point blank chance was initially saved by ‘Cuda goalie Eetu Makiniemi but the rebound was tucked home by Kevin Rooney for his third goal of the season at the 18:49 mark.

#4 Calgary had a power play in the overtime session but failed to take advantage of their opportunity as San Jose forced the game into the shootout. The Wranglers Daniil Chechelev finished the evening with 29 saves on 33 shots to earn the victory. Makiniemi made 27 saves on 31 shots in the losing effort.

#5  San Jose host the Ontario Reign (26-17-1-1) on Wednesday at 7:00pm at Tech CU Arena. The Reign are sixth in the AHL Pacific Division with 54 points and have won six of their last ten games. Can the Barracuda hold onto home ice and scratch out a win after losing five straight games?

Join Marko for the Barracuda podcasts Mondays at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Wolf blanks Barracuda in Calgary by a final of 4-0

Photo courtesy of San Jose Barracuda Twitter. Patrick McGrath gets ready in Calgary to play against the Wranglers

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

The Barracuda in the second of back to backs were blanked by Dustin Wolf and the Wranglers defense by a final of 4-0 on Tuesday night.

Compared to the last game against the Wranglers the Barracuda got off to a solid start getting some solid chances on Wolf.

Despite the chances the Wranglers struck first with a goal by Emilio Petterson on the breakaway the first shot of the game for Calgary. The assists going to Yan Kuznetsov and Connor Zary.

The goal gave the Wranglers a lead but the Barracuda continued to get chances but just couldn’t solve Wolf.

The shots by the end of the first period favored the Barracuda 17-3 even despite the fact that San Jose did not have a power play in the period.

The second period play was the complete inverse of the first period with the Wranglers instead taking the momentum. Eetu Makiniemi instead had to be the goalie making the saves and keeping his team in the game.

Again though similar to the first period the Wranglers scored first this time Rory Kerins got the goal. The assists went to Nicolas Meloche and Walker Duehr.

Matthew Phillips would follow up with his ninth goal of the year assisted by Jakob Pelletier and Ilya Solovyov.

There also was a fight in the second as Luke Johnson and Ben Jones dropped the gloves just six seconds into the second period.

That would be all of the scoring for the period as the shots finished after two periods 21-15 still in favor of the Barracuda.

The third period was pretty quiet as there was no penalties and only one goal. It came from Meloche 10:01 into the period with assists going to Mitch McLain and Radim Zohorna.

It would however be an extremely high shooting period as the total shots in the period between the two teams was 25-24 in favor of the Wranglers.

The Barracuda finished the game with no power play opportunities while the Wranglers had three and scored on none of them.

Next game for the Barracuda will be against the Ontario Reign on Nov. 10th at 7 p.m. at Tech Cu arena.

Barracuda drop first of back to back against Wranglers by final of 8-2

Photo Courtesy of San Jose Barracuda Twitter. Patrick Sieloff gets warmed up before the game against Calgary.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

The Barracuda took on the Wranglers in Calgary and received a stomping from their offense by a final of 8-2 in the first of back to backs.

The first period started off in a positive way with Tristen Robins scoring his 4th goal of the season at 10:49. The assists coming from both Andrew Agozzino and William Eklund.

That was about all of the positives to be extrapolated for the Barracuda as the rest of the period was pure domination for the Wranglers.

It was started with Matthew Phillips getting a goal at the 12:14 mark of the first period his sixth on the year. Assists coming from Radim Zohorna and Jakob Pelletier.

Following that up less than three minutes later Phillips followed up his own goal with another one again assisted by Zohorna and Pelletier.

Connor Zary saw fit to add on to the lead with another goal his fifth of the year this time with Nicolas Meloche and Cole Schwindt getting the assists.

Down 3-1 the lead only proceeded to get worse as Mitch McLain got his third goal of the season assisted by Jereme Poirier.

By the end of the first period the lead was 4-1 with the shots at 16-7 also in favor of Calgary.

The scoring in the second similar to the first took a minute as the first goal wouldn’t come till the 11:02 mark.

Connor Zary got his second this time with assists coming from Yan Kuznetsov and Schwindt. That goal got Aaron Dell pulled with Eetu Makiniemi drawing in.

Less than a minute later Phillips completed the hat trick with a goal on the power play. The assists coming from Ben Jones and Poirier.

That would be all of the offense in the second period with the shots finishing at 28-21in favor of Calgary.

Down 6-1 Danil Gushchin did not give up for the Barracuda as he would score just 2:37 into the third period. Ryan Merkley and Tristen Robins would get the assists on the goal.

The Wranglers would respond though a little later in the third period with Pelletier scoring from Zohorna and Poirier.

Jeffrey Viel clearly frustrated with the way the game was going got into a fight with Zohorna at the 9:44 mark.

Despite the large lead late in the game McLain added on to the lead with a power play goal. The assists going to Jones and Meloche.

The Barracuda’s next game will be against the Wranglers again in Calgary at 6 p.m. on the 8th.