San Jose Barracuda’s second-round series is set after opening-round sweep
The San Jose Barracuda swept its best-of-three first-round playoff series with the Ontario Reign and will now start a best-of-five second-round series against the top-seeded Colorado Eagles on Friday at Tech CU Arena.
Collin Graf scored a go-ahead goal with 2:18 left in the third period to help lift the Barracuda, the Sharks’ AHL affiliate, to a 2-1 win over the Reign on Saturday in Game 2 of their opening-round series at Crypto.com Arena.
“I’m happy for our group,” Barracuda coach John McCarthy said after Saturday’s game. “That’s a lively locker room in there. They should be really proud of themselves.”
Forward Anthony Vincent also scored, and goalie Yaroslav Askarov made 29 saves for the Barracuda, including 11 in the third period.
Askarov made 17 saves in San Jose’s series-opening 2-0 win over Ontario on Thursday for his first AHL playoff shutout.
“Askarov was great, I thought he won the game for us,” McCarthy said.
San Jose was forced to play much of the game shorthanded as forward Donovan Houle was hit with the puck in the first period. Defenseman Luca Cagnoni left the game late in the second period after taking a high hit but returned in the third period.
“It was gritty for us because we went down a couple of guys there, a forward and a D,” Graf said. “Being really active on the bench and making sure that we’re all dialed in into who is going on, having short shifts, that helped us win.”
The sixth-seeded Barracuda faces No. 1 Colorado in the Pacific Division semifinals, with games 1 and 2 on Friday and Sunday, respectively. The Eagles will host the remainder of the series, with Game 3 on May 6 and Games 4 and 5, if necessary, on May 7 and 11, respectively.
San Jose went 3-5-0 in its season series against Colorado this season.
AHL Pacific Division semifinals
No. 1 Colorado Eagles vs. No. 6 San Jose Barracuda
(all games streaming on flohockey.tv and the Sharks Audio Network; all times Pacific)
Game 1: Colorado at San Jose, Friday, 7 p.m., Tech CU Arena
Game 2: Colorado at San Jose, Sunday, 6 p.m., Tech CU Arena
Game 3: San Jose at Colorado, May 6, 6:05 p.m., Blue FCU Arena
*Game 4: San Jose at Colorado, May 7, 6:05 p.m., Blue FCU Arena
*Game 5: San Jose at Colorado, May 11, 2:05 p.m., Blue FCU Arena
* if necessary