SAN JOSE—An announced crowd of 6,977 fans witnessed the first-ever appearance by the San Jose Barracuda Friday night at SAP Center to open the AHL season.
The Rockford Icehogs—visiting from just outside of Chicago—spoiled San Jose’s opener by scoring twice in the third period to turn a 2-2 deadlock into a 4-2 victory.
Five Western Conference NHL teams have moved their AHL affiliates to California this fall. In addition to the San Jose Sharks’ AHL Barracuda, the Oilers are set up in Bakersfield, the Kings are in Ontario, Anaheim plays in San Diego and Calgary plays home games in Stockton.
While the Barracuda will often play at SAP Center the same day as the Sharks, Friday’s opening was a solo Barracuda experience. The Sharks open their 41-game home schedule Saturday night against the Anaheim Ducks.
Friday night marked the start of the 18th season as an AHL head coach for San Jose’s Roy Sommer, who needs 20 victories to pass Hockey Hall of Famer Fred “Bun” Cook as the winningest AHL coach of all time.
Sommer turned to 26-year-old Troy Grosenick to start between the pipes for the Barracuda. Grosenick has two career NHL games, while the IceDogs’ goaltender, Michael Leighton, had 76 career NHL outings
Grosenick “gave us some opportunities,” Sommer said of the 37-save effort by the 27-year-old.
“Our penalty kill was okay, and we were able to move the puck around some on the power play,” Sommer added. “Overall, though, it was not the game we wanted to play.”
Rockford, the Chicago Blackhawks’ top minor club, raced to a 2-0 lead in the first period before San Jose’s Michael Haley scored a power play goal in the closing 13 seconds of the period. The IceHogs opened the scoring at 1:01 of play when Tanner Kero redirected a pass from the high slot past San Jose’s Troy Grosenick. Center Dennis Rasmussen made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal at the 14:43 mark.
Barracuda left wing Bryan Lerg, named the team’s captain Thursday, came up with a tying goal in the second period as the IceHogs were nine seconds away from killing off a penalty.
