GAMEDAY: BARRACUDA VS. WILD
Oct 20, 2024SAN JOSE BARRACUDA (2-1-0-0) vs IOWA WILD (0-3-0-0)
SUN, OCT. 20 | 3:00 P.M. | TECH CU ARENA | SAN JOSE, CA
LISTEN | WATCH | DAILY REPORT | GAME NOTES | MEDIA KIT
Home Cooking: After a 5-0 win on Saturday night versus the Iowa Wild, the Barracuda go for the weekend sweep of Minnesota’s AHL affiliate in the second of back-to-back games on Sunday at Tech CU Arena. The Barracuda are 9-4-2-0 all-time versus the Wild and 5-1-2-0 at home.
About Last Night: The Barracuda got 26 saves from Yaroslav Askarov en-route to a 5-0 win over the Iowa Wild on Saturday night at Tech CU Arena in front of 3,942 fans. In the victory, Donovan Houle scored his first two AHL goals and Luca Cagnoni also netted his first in the AHL. The Barracuda, who finished the game with a power-play goal and two shorties, scored four times in the third period to blow the game wide open after taking a 1-0 lead in the second. Colin White (SH) and Anthony Vincent also chipped in with goals in the win.
Familiar Faces: Barracuda alumni Adam Raska and Brad Marek returned to San Jose on 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 (1+3=4), Colin Graf (2+1=3), Kasper Halttunen (2+1=3), Jake Furlong (0+2=2), Luca Cagnoni (1+1=2), and Donavan Houle (2+1=3) have combined for 17 of the team’s 30 points this season. Bystedt now has 11 points (5+6=11) through his first 11 games in the AHL and has points in all three games this season.
Barracuda Brick: Yaroslav Askarov recorded his second consecutive shutout on Saturday, turning aside all 26 Wild shots he faced en-route to a 5-0 dub. 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. Askarov has begun the year by making 48 consecutive stops in 120 minutes of action and now has 11 career AHL shutouts. 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 9-1-1 against Iowa all-time having won seven in a row.
“Checking Line”: The combination of Anthony Vincent, Lucas Vanroboys, and Donovan Houle has produced four of the team’s first 14 goals through the Barracuda’s opening three games. On Saturday, Vincent dropped the gloves with former teammate Brad Marek and then potted an insurance goal in the third. Houle scored his first two AHL goals on Saturday, including the game-winner and a shorthanded goal in the third. All three players were signed out of the NCAA ranks as undrafted free agents over the last two years and despite having just 53 combined games of AHL/pro experience between the three, the trio is still seasoned having played a combined 397 games at the NCAA level over a combined 13 seasons.