San Jose Barracuda Report: Cuda Struggling Of Late

After rolling along at the beginning of January, the San Jose Barracuda have hit the skids of late, dropping four consecutive games. San Jose has desperately tried to see Roy Sommer notch career victory number 636, which would tie the AHL record for wins by a head coach, but they’ve come up short in their last four tries.

To make matters worse from a Barracuda perspective, they dropped both games to the division rival and Pacific Division leading Ontario Reign, top affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, over the weekend.

Last Friday, it appeared as if San Jose was primed for a key victory when they held a 2-0 lead over the Reign heading into the third period, but unfortunately, Ontario scored two goals in the final frame, including the game-tying goal with just 1:32 remaining, to force overtime.

In the overtime session, the Reign’s Nic Dowd ended things just 28 seconds into the extra frame, getting one past Barracuda netminder Aaron Dell to give Ontario a 3-2 victory.

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It was a disappointing outcome for San Jose who lost an opportunity to close the gap on Ontario in the Pacific and also, give Sommer his 636th career victory. Dell made 31 saves in defeat, while Karl Stollery and Trevor Parkes found the back of the net for the Barracuda.

One night later, the two teams were back at it, this time at SAP Center, but San Jose couldn’t find a way to get the job done.

A back-and-forth first period saw Ontario score two goals past Troy Grosenick, and they would be all that was required in this one as the Reign emerged with a 2-1 win.

Parkes scored for the second consecutive game against Ontario, extending his point streak to five games, to tie the game up at one in the first, but the Reign scored the eventual game-winner with 49 seconds remaining in the initial frame.

Grosenick made 23 stops in defeat, and Ben Smith made his debut for the Barracuda after being placed on waivers by the Sharks.

On a positive note, the Barracuda will have another representative in the AHL All-Star Classic as Ryan Carpenter was added to the roster. It’s a well-deserved honor for Carpenter who leads San Jose in points (32), assists (25) and plus/minus (+16) for the season, and he will join Barclay Goodrow in Syracuse, N.Y. for the All-Star festivities.

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The Barracuda will look to snap that four-game skid tonight as they begin a five-game road trip in the Lone Star State by visiting the Texas Stars, top affiliate of the Dallas Stars, before traveling to San Antonio to take on the Rampage, top affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche, for a pair of games over the weekend.

This will be a big game tonight between San Jose and Texas as the two teams are separated by percentage points for second place in the Pacific Division.

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