Makiniemi Stymies Wild in 3-1 Barracuda Victory
DES MOINES, IA – Eetu Makiniemi made 28 saves as the San Jose Barracuda defeated the Iowa Wild on Saturday evening, 3-1. Ryan Merkley had two assists for San Jose. Zane McIntyre took the loss, stopping 16 of 19 shots.
As they had the previous evening, the Barracuda jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. With just under five minutes left in the first frame, Luke Johnson took a pass from C.J. Suess just inside the left face-off circle. He lifted a wrist shot that beat McIntyre for his first goal of the season.
Just 90 seconds later, the Barracuda were back on the scoreboard. Merkley passed the puck to Derrick Pouliot, who made a one touch pass to William Eklund, beating McIntyre with a one-timer to extend the lead to two.
It looked like San Jose would make this a three goal lead seconds later, but McIntyre made a beautiful pad save to keep this a two-goal contest.
In the second, Nick Swaney cut the deficit to one just before the nine-minute mark. Steven Fogarty had the puck along the right half boards. Instead of taking the shot, he waited for Swaney to get open, feeding his teammate in front of the net, who beat Makiniemi to make it 2-1.
Iowa was suddenly back in the game, but San Jose put this contest away a little over five minutes later when Andrew Agozzino scored his first goal of the season at the 14:07 mark. Max Veronneau passed the puck back to Agozzino at that point. He moved down the slot, looking like he would roof the puck, but instead slid it along the ice, beating McIntyre to the far post for his first goal of the season.
Iowa dominated the final two periods of the contest, recording 10 shots in each of the frames while outshooting the Barracuda 20-10 over the final 40 minutes. However, Makiniemi was the difference in this contest, stopping 28 of the 29 shots he faced. Iowa hounded the San Jose netminder, but would not rally to tie the score as they had the previous evening.
The Wild power play went 0-3, and are now 0-10 through the first two games. San Jose was denied on their four power play opportunities.
The Iowa Wild (0-1-1) continue their four-game homestand to begin the season when they welcome the Texas Stars on Friday. The puck drops at 7:00.
by Robert Pannier
