With a perfect night from goaltender Yaroslav Askarov, which consisted of 22 saves, the San Jose Barracuda (1-0-0-0) blanked the Ontario Reign (0-1-0-0) by a 5-0 score on Opening Night Saturday at Toyota Arena.
Rookie attacker Kasper Halttunen scored twice in the victory for San Jose, his first two North American pro goals in the first game of his AHL career. Other Barracuda tallies were netted by Anthony Vincent, Collin Graf and Joey Keane.
Erik Portillo made the start at the other end of the ice for the Reign, opposing Askarov and making 18 saves in a losing effort.
After allowing an opening period goal to Vincent at 6:27, Ontario came into the second and out-shot San Jose by an 11-9 margin but were unable to solve Askarov.
The Barracuda increased their lead to 2-0 on Halttunen’s first goal of the night, a power play strike at 2:34. The Reign had five straight man-advantage chances spanning from the middle of the second to early in the third, but couldn’t find the back of the net. Ontario finished the game 0-for-6 on the power play.
Collin Graf made it 3-0 in favor of the Barracuda when he finished on the breakaway at 12:24 of the third.
San Jose went 2-for-5 while up a man in the game, including Halttunen’s second power play goal of the night at 16:39 of the third to make it 4-0.
Keane added the final tally of the contest during 4-on-4 play at 18:21 of the third.
The two teams will be back in action at Toyota Arena on Sunday afternoon for a rematch beginning at 3 p.m.
Below, hear thoughts from Reign head coach Marco Sturm and defender Angus Booth after the loss –
Marco Sturm
Angus Booth
On playing his first professional game
Yeah I mean to have my first game under my belt here was really awesome. I wanted a better result for the team and myself obviously, but I think the first game is done now and I’m looking forward to the next one.
On playing with captain Joe Hicketts
He’s an amazing player, he’s really easy to play with, he’s always in great position and talking to me and trying to do the best he can to help me. I also live with him too so I’m getting to know him really well on and off the ice.
On playing against San Jose and what he saw from them
Yeah we knew coming into tonight that they made a lot of new additions and the coaching staff talked about it and we need to be ready for tomorrow to get one back.
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