SAN JOSE—The San Jose Barracuda of the AHL closed the preseason with a 2-1 win in overtime against the Stockton Heat on Saturday afternoon.
The first period was scoreless. Stockton’s starting goalie, Tyler Parsons, shut San Jose down in the second period with a total of 16 saves. Additionally, Joel Lowry posted the first goal of the game that period, assisted by Spencer Foo. San Jose fell to Stockton 0-1 at the end of the second.
San Jose did not score their first goal until the third period; center Manuel Wiederer did the honor approximately one minute in, after Heat goalie Mason McDonald had stepped in for Parsons.
“I try to do especially what [Coach Mike] Ricci tells me to do, go to the net, that’s where you’re scoring goals. [Mine] wasn’t a nice goal, but a goal is a goal,” Wiederer told San Francisco News after the match.
“Last year [in the QMJHL] I didn’t score a lot of nice goals, but again, a goal is a goal. Just get to the dirty areas [of the net] and score,” Wiederer added.
When overtime hit, left winger Adam Helewka beat the Heat (pun intended) after he slowly approached McDonald, deliberately handling the puck, and snuck past the net minder to score.
“[There was] not a lot of energy [when I scored],” Helewka said of his slick, smooth, game-winning goal. “I tried to make [Stockton’s defensemen] bite and make a move around them.
“It was kind of quick thinking. I didn’t see much empty net when I went to shoot it. [McDonald] was pretty square, so I tried to make him go down and move it around him.”
Saturday’s game marked the Barracuda’s bounce-back from a 6-0 loss against the Bakersfield Condors on Thursday, September 27.
“I was a little nervous coming into [Saturday’s] game with basically the same lineup,” Coach Roy Sommer said after the match. “But I thought we played good, a lot of guys were heads-and-shoulders with the way they played.”
