GAMEDAY: BARRACUDA VS CONDORS
Mar 2, 2018LISTEN | WATCH | GAME NOTES
Morning Matchup: On Friday, the Barracuda collide with the Bakersfield Condors for the seventh of 10 meetings on the season and the fourth at SAP Center. The Barracuda are coming off a 4-1 loss at Bakersfield in their last outing on February 23.
Deadline Deals: On Sunday the Sharks traded the AHL’s Top Goaltender of the Year from a season ago, Troy Grosenick, along with Brandon Bollig to the Nashville Predators in exchange for a sixth-round draft pick in 2018. On Monday, the continued making deals as they shipped the AHL’s Rookie of the Year from a year ago, Danny O’Regan, along with a pair of conditional draft choices to the Buffalo Sabres for Evander Kane.
Currie For Three: In 27 career games against San Jose, Condors forward Josh Currie has 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) including a pair of hat-tricks. Currie collected a goal and two assists in Bako’s 4-1 win over San Jose on February 23. Currie is riding a four-game point streak (4 goals, three assists) after scoring twice in Bakersfield's last game on February 24 and has points in six of his last seven games.
Rudy Rocking: Rookie All-Star Rudolfs Balcers has three multi-goal games in his last 10 and now ranks 14th in the AHL among first-year players in points (33), 15th in assists (19), and T-15th in goals (14). The Latvia native leads the Barracuda in points, assists, goals, T-first in power-play goals and T-first in game-winning goals.
Mac Is Back: San Jose Barracuda captain John McCarthy returns to the Cuda lineup on Friday after skating in five games for Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics. McCarthy is in his ninth year of pro hockey, appearing in 88 games with the San Jose Sharks, and 454 games of his 479 AHL career between the Worcester Sharks and San Jose Barracuda. Over the last two seasons, McCarthy had missed just two games with the Barracuda. McCarthy is first on the Barracuda in plus/minus (+6) and T-first in power-play goals (6) this season.
All-Star Antoine: In his fourth professional season, and first within the Sharks organization, AHL All-Star Antoine Bibeau is 14-11-2 in 29 games played with a 2.26 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage. The native of Victoriaville, Quebec is sixth in the AHL in shutouts (3), fifth in goals-against average and 11th in save percentage.
Sommer-Time: San Jose Barracuda Head Coach and Bay Area native Roy Sommer collected the 700th AHL win of his career on Dec. 3 at Bakersfield (2-1). Sommer is the first coach in the 82-year history of the American Hockey League to reach 700 coaching wins. In 2015-16, Sommer surpassed Fred “Bun” Cook as the AHL’s all-time leader in wins and collected his first A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as AHL Coach of the Year in 2016-17. Sommer, who’s in his AHL record 20th season behind the bench for the top affiliate of the San Jose Sharks, coached his 1,500th game in the AHL on Dec. 8 at SAP Center against Tucson.