No love was lost between the San Jose Barracuda and their division rivals, the Stockton Heat this Saturday. In a tightly contested and physical matchup, the ‘Cuda narrowly defeated the Heat in overtime by a score of 2-1.
Antoine Bibeau and Tyler Parsons got the calls in net today. Bibeau stopped 34 out of 35 shots faced, and Parsons stopped all 21 shots he faced before being replaced in the third period by Mason McDonald.
The first period had a lot of physicality right out of the gate, with big hits from Colby McAuley that led to a scrap between him and Austin Carroll. Both men sat for 4:00 for roughing.
While there was a lot of rough stuff in the first period, the second period had more scoring opportunities. The Heat would capitalize on one when Antoine Bibeau stopped a shot but couldn’t recover the rebound, and Joel Lowry would tap it in to give the Heat a 1-0 lead. Tyler Parsons was absolutely stellar in this period, robbing Adam Helewka of 3 scoring chances. Vincent Arseneau dropped the gloves with Olie Yevenko at 18:37.
The third period saw Parsons swapped out for McDonald, as mentioned earlier. At 1:05 of the third, 2016 5th round pick Manny Wiederer would get a hold of a red and poke it past McDonald to even the score. This period had no shortage of penalties, as even Mason McDonald would lay out Colby McAuley and get charged with interference.
In overtime, Adam Helewka got a breakaway chance right off the bat but couldn’t get it past McDonald. However, with only 46 seconds played in the period, the kid from Burnaby would put it past McDonald, and just like that the ‘Cuda would once again vanquish the Heat in overtime.
The bitter rivals will face each other again on Saturday, October 9th in Stockton – however, this time, the game will count. The Barracuda will return to the SAP Center on Friday the 13th, for a long-awaited rematch against the team that ended their ended their Calder Cup dreams in the Western Conference Final, the Grand Rapids Griffins.
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