GAMEDAY: BARRACUDA VS WILD
Oct 19, 2024SAN JOSE BARRACUDA (1-1-0-0) vs IOWA WILD (0-2-0-0)
SAT, OCT. 19 | 7:00 P.M. | TECH CU ARENA | SAN JOSE, CA
LISTEN | WATCH | MEDIA KIT | GAME NOTES | DAILY REPORT
Home Cooking: The Barracuda are set to host the Iowa Wild on Saturday for their home opener at Tech CU Arena. The Barracuda shutout the Ontario Reign 5-0 in their season opener last Saturday, but allowed a pair of goals the next night in the final two minutes and were dealt a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the Reign in the second of back-to-back games. Lifetime, the Barracuda are 4-3-2 in home openers. A year ago, San Jose went 14-16-4-2 at Tech CU Arena and are 30-33-5-4 since moving into their permanent home in 2022-23.
Wild Things: The Barracuda are 8-4-2-0 all-time versus the Wild and 4-1-2-0 at home. Saturday marks the first of back-to-back against Minnesota’s top affiliate and the first of four on the season series. In 2022-23, the last time the teams faced off against each other, the Barracuda went 3-1 and 1-1 at home. San Jose is set to travel to Des Moines for a pair of games on Nov. 2 and 3. The Wild did not reach the postseason last year under first-year head coach Brett McLean, going 27-37-0-4.
Familiar Faces: Barracuda alumni Adam Raska and Brad Marek are set to face their old team for the first time this Saturday. Raska, a former Sharks’ seventh-rounder, was dealt to the Minnesota Wild on Nov. 8, 2023, for Calen Addison and a fifth-rounder in 2026. Raska played 110 games with the Barracuda while totaling nine goals and 16 assists over parts of three years. He also appeared in eight games for the Sharks. Marek split last season between the Barracuda and the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder. In his 26 games with the Barracuda, he notched five goals and an assist. Marek, in his Wild debut, scored Iowa’s only two goals in a 3-2 loss on Sunday versus Manitoba.
Rookie Arrivals: Barracuda rookies Filip Bystedt (2+1=3), Colin Graf (2+0=2), Kasper Halttunen (2+0=2), Jake Furlong (0+2=2), Luca Cagnoni (0+1=1), and Donavan Houle (0+1=1) combined for 11 of the team’s 20 points in the two games at Ontario this past weekend. Bystedt now has 10 points (5+5=10) through his first 10 games in the AHL.
Barracuda Brick: Yaroslav Askarov became the first Barracuda goalie to record a shutout in his debut on Saturday as he made 22 saves in a 5-0 win. The 22-year-old, who was selected 11th overall in 2020 by the Predators, was acquired by the Sharks from Nashville in August as part of a blockbuster trade. Last season, in Milwaukee with the Admirals, he finished second in the league with 30 wins, just one behind Tucson's Matt Villalta. He was also ranked second in shutouts (6) and fifth in goals-against average (2.39). Askarov won 14 games in a row at one point last year, as he and former Sharks' prospect Troy Grosenick backstopped Milwaukee to a 19-game winning streak. Versus the Wild, he went 5-0 with a 1.83 GAA and .931 SV% in 2023-24 and is 8-1-1 against Iowa all-time having won six in a row.