By Taylor Lupetti (@tayclupetti):
The San Jose Barracuda (2-2-0-0), AHL team for the San Jose Sharks, played the Stockton Heat (2-2-0-0), AHL team for Calgary Flames, for the second time in their four game season. Coming off back to back losses last weekend, the ‘Cuda came back and dominated the game to win 5-2.
“It was a good bounce back from the weekend,” said head coach Roy Sommer. “It was a good hockey team that we were going up against and I knew that we had to play better than we had been and we did.”
It has been more than six months since the Heat came to SAP Center. The last time the two teams faced off in San Jose, the Barracuda ended the Pacific Division semifinals in overtime, beating the Heat 2-1.
San Jose made the trip to Stockton on Oct. 7th to start their season off with a 6-4 win. Since then, the team has faced two losses and were determined to redeem themselves on home ice.
Time seemed endless during the first period as the two teams went back and forth. It wasn’t until 17:58 when Stockton brought the heat, as left-wing forward Andrew Mangiapane scored the first goal of the game. At the 19:34 mark in the first, left-wing forward Brandon Mashinter came through with a power-play goal to tie the game for the Barracuda before heading into the second period.
A goal from center Danny O’Regan in the second period set San Jose ahead until Stockton left-wing forward Andrew Mangiapane tied the game once again at 16:26. Scoring two of the five goals from the night, the center gave credit to his teammates.
“I don’t want to say it was luck,” O’Regan said. “I was benefitting with a lot of good plays from my linemen.”
The Barracuda were able to break the tie within the first three minutes of the third period when O’Regan scored his second goal of the night. Center Alex True and right-wing forward Filip Sandberg would also score a goal each in the third, to cap off San Jose’s 5-2 win.
The Barracuda will be on the road for the next two weeks for their first road trip of the season. Their first game is Saturday morning against the Cleveland Monsters at 10 a.m.