BARRACUDA DRENCHED BY REIGN, 8-2
Feb 27, 2024Ontario, CA – The San Jose Barracuda (17-26-8-1) fell behind by three goals in the opening period on Tuesday night at the Toyota Arena, and despite cutting the lead to one early in the second, could never recover, ultimately falling 8-2 to the Ontario Reign (26-19-3-3). Reign forward Sam Fagemo finished with a game-high five points (3+2=5), notching his second hat trick against the Barracuda this season, and now has 11 goals and five assists in six games against San Jose.
In the loss, Jack Studnicka recorded the second two-goal game of his career and now has four goals in his last four appearances.
In the first, on just their second shot, the Reign managed to jump out to a 1-0 lead when Nikita Pavlychev (1) received a pass between the circles from Sam Helenius after a Barracuda giveaway at 2:13. After the Barracuda were called for a minor penalty, the Reign made it 2-0 when Francesco Pinelli (6) had the puck go off his skate and in as he charged the back post just as the power-play was ending. After the Barracuda nearly cut the lead down to one on a three-on-one, Fagemo (26) was sprung on a breakaway and beat Georgi Romanov under the left arm at 19:10 to complete the three-goal first.
The Barracuda replaced Romanov with Magnus Chrona in the second and found life just 2:43 in when Studnicka (6) slid a breakaway pass from Oskar Lindblom through Erik Portillo’s five hole. Moments later, the Barracuda would go on the power play and on the ensuing advantage, Studnicka (7) would score again to cut the deficit to 3-2 at 5:15. Unfortunately, that was the closest the Barracuda would get as the Reign would push their lead to four in the second period. First Joe Hicketts (1) wrapped in his first in a Reign sweater at 14:11 and then Fagemoo (27) blasted in a one timer past Chrona on the power play at 18:26 and Charles Hudon (18) snapped in Ontario’s sixth goal of the game, also on the power play, with just five seconds left in the period.
In the third, the Barracuda would go onto the power and pull Chrona with 11:58 remaining but failed to do any damage. At 9:17, Kevin Connauton (2) would score on the empty net and then Fagemo (28) would complete the hat trick and five-point night at 14:27.
The Barracuda are back on the ice on Wednesday in Coachella Valley against the Firebirds (7 p.m.) before returning to Tech CU Arena on Saturday (6 p.m.) for the final Tigres Del Mar Night of the year as they play host to Coachella Valley. For tickets and more info, go to sjbarracuda.com.