GAMEDAY: BARRACUDA AT GULLS
Jan 6, 2018
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Tonight’s Matchup: On Saturday, the San Jose Barracuda and San Diego Gulls collide for the second time in as many nights. After San Jose’s 5-0 loss on Friday, they are 1-1 against the Gulls this year and 10-10-2-2 all-time. This weekends visit to SD marks the first since the Barracuda knocked the Gulls out of last seasons Divisional round of the Calder Cup playoffs, four games to one.
Captain America: USA Hockey announced on January 1 during the second intermission of the Winter Classic between the New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres at Citi Field in New York, York York that San Jose Barracuda Captain John McCarthy had been selected to the United States men’s ice hockey team for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. The Olympics will be held from Feb. 9-25 in Pyeongchang, South Korea. McCarthy spent four years at Boston University from 2006-to-2010, winning a NCAA National Championship as the team’s captain in 2012. McCarthy has skated in 465 career AHL games with Chicago, Worcester, and San Jose over his nine year pro career, accumulating 249 points (108 goals, 141 assists), 189 penalty minutes, and a plus-53 rating.
Hey Now You’re An All-Star: The AHL announced on Thursday that netminder Antoine Bibeau has been selected to represent San Jose at the 2018 All-Star game in Utica later this month. In his fourth professional season, and first within the Sharks organization, Bibeau, 23, is 8-7-0 in 23 games played with a 2.37 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage. The native of Victoriaville, Quebec is tied for first in the AHL in shutouts (2), eighth in goal-against, and T-15th in save percentage.
Reindeer Games: Freshman forward, Rudolfs Balcers added another assist in San Jose’s last game and now ranks T-10th in the AHL among first-year players in points (23), and T-sixth in assists (16). Balcers leads the Barracuda in points, assists, and is tied with Danny O’Regan and Brandon Bollig for the team lead in goals (7). A season ago, Balcers led all WHL rookies in goals (40) with the Kamloops Blazers. The Sharks selected the Latvian forward in the fifth round (#142 overall) in the 2015 NHL Draft.
700 For Sommer: San Jose Barracuda Head Coach and Bay Area native Roy Sommer collected his 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 last on Dec. 8 at SAP Center against Tucson.
Cuda Call Up: Six players from the Barracuda’s 2017 Calder Cup playoff roster are now on the San Jose Sharks (Marcus Sorensen, Tim Heed, Barclay Goodrow, Timo Meier, Joakim Ryan and Kevin Labanc). A season ago, the Barracuda finished with the Western Conference’s best regular season winning percentage (.699) and advanced to the Conference Finals before being eliminated by the Grand Rapids Griffins in five games.