The San Jose Barracuda took a big step ahead this season. The crew reached the Calder Cup playoffs for the primary time in six years and noticed a number of younger gamers achieve priceless skilled expertise within the AHL and NHL.
That was of little comfort on Wednesday evening, although, because the Barracuda’s season got here to a bitter and sudden finish with a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Eagles in Sport 4 of their best-of-five AHL Pacific Division semifinal in Loveland, Colorado.
Ahead Igor Chernyshov, in his first Calder Cup playoff sport, gave the Barracuda a 1-0 purpose lead on the 4:09 mark of the third interval. However Colorado, the Pacific Division’s high crew, stormed again as Tye Felhaber’s power-play purpose with 6:28 left in regulation time proved to be the game-winner because the Eagles captured the sequence three video games to 1.
“I don’t think anyone’s at all satisfied with where we ended up,” Barracuda captain Jimmy Schuldt mentioned. “We can step back, and we can take some positives from it. We battled every game we played.”
Chase Bradley scored 1:17 after Chernyshov’s purpose to tie the sport. Felhaber’s purpose got here simply 23 seconds after Patrick Giles took a pointless interference penalty with a late hit on an Eagles participant effectively away from the puck.
“I’m proud of the group, we gave ourselves a chance and we were in the game,” Barracuda coach John McCarthy mentioned. “Unfortunately, the difference was a late penalty and a penalty kill goal against. But overall, I liked the way we played. I actually thought this game might have been our best of the series.”
The Barracuda, the Sharks’ high minor league affiliate, had been with out main scorer and AHL MVP Andrew Poturalski for the playoffs as he sustained a lower-body harm in late March. Additionally out for San Jose on Wednesday was veteran Colin White, who suffered an harm on Tuesday. Thomas Bordeleau had an upper-body harm late within the Sharks’ season and by no means returned for a sport.
For the Barracuda, Poturalski’s absence was particularly felt on San Jose’s energy play, which went 2-for-16 within the sequence.
If San Jose had received Wednesday, these gamers may need been obtainable for Sport 5 on Sunday.
Getting Poturalski, who had a league-leading 73 factors in 59 video games, “would have been huge,” Schuldt mentioned. “That was kind of the driving force behind the night. It sounded like we were going to get him back Sunday if we made it to Game 5. Sounds like we could have gotten Colin White back if we made it there.”
Goalie Yaroslav Askarov, in what was possible his remaining AHL sport, completed with 29 saves. Askarov needed to depart Tuesday’s Sport 3 in additional time with cramping, and Colorado scored the game-winner for a 3-2 victory shortly after he exited.
In six playoff video games, Askarov was 3-2 with a .935 save share, a 1.68 objectives towards common, and a shutout. Together with taking part in 13 video games for the Sharks this season, Askarov, in 22 video games with the Barracuda, was 11-9-2 with a .923 save share.
Requested if Askarov, who begins a two-year, $4 million contract with the Sharks subsequent season, is prepared for the NHL, McCarthy mentioned, “That’s not really my call, but he’s a fantastic goalie with a ton of talent.”
The Barracuda completed the common season with a 36-27-5-4 document and 81 factors, a 19-point enchancment over final 12 months, once they completed tenth and final within the Pacific Division. San Jose was sixth this 12 months and beat third-place Ontario within the first spherical.
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Gamers like Luca Cagnoni, Filip Bystedt, Collin Graf, and Jake Furlong, all 22 or youthful, gained priceless expertise of their first full seasons in North American professional hockey. Others like Danil Gushchin, Jack Thompson, and Ethan Cardwell continued their growth, with Cardwell making his NHL debut in November.
All of that did little to appease the Barracuda’s ache on Wednesday, as they left Loveland feeling like their season ended approach too quickly.
“The goal isn’t to get to the second round, it’s to go all the way,” Giles mentioned. “However to be the place this crew hasn’t been in a number of years speaks loads to this group and the way forward for this group.”
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