Barracuda Pull Away From Wranglers Behind Special Teams Surge

SAN JOSE — The Calgary Wranglers dropped the opener of their three-game road trip Friday night, falling 5–1 to the San Jose Barracuda at Tech CU Arena.

Calgary opened the scoring late in the first period when Sam Morton struck at 16:19, finishing a play set up by Zayne Parekh and Dryden Hunt.

San Jose responded in the second period and seized control through special teams. Donavan Houle tied the game at 7:14 before a power-play goal from Filip Bystedt at 11:48, with assists from Luca Cagnoni and Colin White.

The Barracuda extended the lead in the third period with a short-handed goal by Anthony Vincent at 3:21, followed by another power-play marker from Cam Lund at 7:12, assisted by Egor Afanasyev and Kasper Halttunen. Nolan Allan capped the scoring at 7:27, with Vincent recording the assist.

In goal, Ivan Prosvetov stopped 37 of 42 shots for Calgary (.881 save percentage), while Laurent Brossoit turned aside 22 of 23 shots for San Jose (.957 save percentage).

Vincent, who finished with a goal and an assist, was named the game’s first star. Bystedt and Lund earned second and third star honors, respectively.

The Wranglers remain in San Jose and face the Barracuda again Saturday night, with puck drop set for 7:00 p.m. MT.