San Jose Barracuda
Game 3 Takeaways: Cuda on Brink After 3-2 OT Loss, Askarov Exits With Injury
The San Jose Barracuda are on the brink…and they might have lost their star goalie.
The Barracuda dropped Game Three to the Colorado Eagles in overtime, 3-2. They’re now down 2-1 in the five-game series. But that may not have been their biggest loss.
2:08 into OT, Yaroslav Askarov, who had stopped 25-of-27 shots, left the game with what head coach John McCarthy called “minor cramping”. Back-up Gabriel Carriere, put in a tough spot, would surrender the game-winning goal to Matthew Phillips less than three minutes later.
“It was a odd-man rush, and he kind of held it for an extra second, and then he was able to pick the far side there,” Carriere said.
McCarthy expressed confidence that the top San Jose Sharks prospect would be available to play in a decisive Game Four on Wednesday, but we’ll see.
If not, McCarthy asserted, “We trust Gabe.”
Carriere filled in ably this season when Askarov missed the last two months of the season.
Askarov’s exit certainly took the wind out of the sails from the Barracuda’s momentum. They had come back from a 2-0 first period deficit because of a Filip Bystedt power play strike and a last-minute Pavol Regenda goal to force OT.
Power-Play BEAST-edt 🚨
Filip Bystedt cuts the Colorado lead in half!@sjbarracuda | @SanJoseSharks | @LockedOnSharks#AHL #CalderCup #TealBitesBack #BarracudaHockey #TheFutureIsTeal pic.twitter.com/wn4Hmfd5mB— FloHockey (@FloHockey) May 7, 2025
Pavol Regenda ties it up!#Tealbitesback
2-2 pic.twitter.com/Eb0pYbaIzF— JD Young (@MyFryHole) May 7, 2025
Game Four is 6 PM PT on Wednesday at Blue Arena. The Fanatics Sportsbook promo might add a little more spice to the game. If the San Jose Sharks’ AHL affiliate can force a decisive Game Five, it will be on Sunday at 2 PM PT.
Turning Point
Askarov’s injury might have happened here:
This Phillips-Jayson Megna connection just misses. Afterwards, you can see Askarov flex his right leg, which is what he did continuously during the next stoppage before he departed the game.
Quote of the Night
Regenda spoke on the mood or message in the room going into Game Four: “We’ll be ready. We’re not losing the series…We’re going to beat their ass tomorrow.”
Key Stats
4,997 feet: That’s the altitude of Loveland, Colorado.
That’s not an excuse, the Eagles have to deal with it too. But that almost mile-high altitude, coupled with Askarov’s cramping and back-to-back playoff games, is obviously some challenge to both sides.
Overtime
Whatever happens in this series, Regenda has been arguably the Barracuda’s best player in the playoffs, this side of Askarov, tying Bystedt for the team lead with three goals each. He’s played with force and conviction, sounding as ready as anybody to back up his bulletin board quote.
Colin White leads the Cuda with six points this post-season, one goal and five assists, but he left the game in the first period and didn’t come back.
White (16) gets hit twice here in slot, maybe a knee from Aamodt (5), then a collision with his own man Graf (51).
No penalty called, White helped off, didn't return in period pic.twitter.com/o1ga9Suge9
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) May 7, 2025
McCarthy had no update post-game.
So the Barracuda could be down their No. 1 center, AHL MVP Andrew Poturalski, their de facto No. 1 center, White, and their superstar goalie, Askarov, tomorrow.
This isn’t counting the absences of prolific scorer Thomas Bordeleau and top defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin.
Of course, Colorado is banged up too, missing No. 1 defenseman Jack Ahcan, who left Game Two early.
No doubt, the San Jose Sharks’ AHL affiliate is walking wounded into a do-or-die Game Four.
“We just got to clean up a couple things,” Scott Sabourin said. “I liked our compete, liked our resilience, and I think we just got to come in with some swagger tomorrow.”
The late season injury luck for San Jose was comically bad and seems to have continued on with the Cuda.
Their complete lack of 5v5 scoring shows how much they miss Pots and Bordeleau.
Obviously Mukh on the back-end would help everything, too.
I’m starting to get a bit concerned with Askarov being unable to stay healthy.
Me too. Staying healthy at this level requires a nearly maniacal level of fitness, functional movement, nutrition, and self care. If Asky hasn’t embraced that this might become a recurring story.
Seriously. In the past, I’ve owned some biotech stocks. And learned just how many things can go wrong that are difficult to predict. Its kind of the same with goalies. So many things can go wrong. So many good goalies seem to come out of nowhere. Some stay at the top of their game, some fade back. Andrew Hammond and Devan Dubnyk both had incredible runs in the midst of far more modest careers. Mackenzie Blackwood was an afterthought until he came to San Jose and after not too many games, people suddenly remember he’s good. The Askarov ride has… Read more »
it kills me to say this, but Binnington fits that profile. He controls his temper, he’s a gamer.
At one point, I did a review of Cup winning goalies.
I think there was a Cup wining goalie from about every round of the draft.
The case study I tend to use is Pekka Rinne. Great player, but he was 25 or 26 before his NHL career really even began. He had like 3 wins before he turned 26. Even then, his ratio of good years to bad years was about 2:1. Great player, at his best, easily one of the best. But still a roller coaster.
A legitimate concern for sure, although injury-plagued seasons are not uncommon, especially at a position as physically demanding as goaltending. It can be hard to get into a groove health wise, especially when you start the season on the shelf. If the problems extend from one season to the next, then it’s a problem. For now it’s just a bummer on the development side of the equation, and hopefully not an emerging trend.
hockey guy’s review of the Ducks. Lots of parallels to the Sharks, though the Sharks are a year or 2 behind.
Also makes me wonder if the Sharks consider taking Gibson off their hands. Big cap hit for 2 more seasons — he’s an effective back-up at this point. Ducks have enormous cap space — I see them in the Marner race, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGm8amA6occ
Gibson really fell off but for a backup that might be okay. And he’d have a lot more to impart upon Asky than Georgiev did.
Carriere is not a good goaltender. I have watched him choke this season over and over and over again as a season ticket holder. Two of the games he played this season four goals were scored in the first 10 minutes and they had to bring on Dell. When he had to come into overtime last night I knew what was going to happen already. The first shot on goal goes in and when you look at the replay any good goaltender would have stopped that shot. Dell shou be on In Colorado with them because he would have stopped… Read more »
Here’s a name I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned as a potential FA addition this offseason. Anthony Mantha. Personally think it would make a lot of sense. He’s coming off a torn ACL so good teams might not want to invest the money in him. Sharks could give him a Wennberg style short term overpay deal (doesn’t need to be two years, could be one year). He would add some much needed size to our current winger group and has been a really solid middle-six guy in his career.
Ehhh idk his hockey sense I haven’t ever really been impressed with, he def is big tho
He’s been successful everywhere he’s been. Consistently runs possession and shot rates better than his team does. Solid production. Buying low on a guy coming off injury who has been a 0.6 pts/game player in his career with really good underlying metrics seems like a good play for a team like the Sharks. His injury concerns are really the only downside with him but that doesn’t really matter for a team who isn’t going to be a playoff team.
I do like the ‘Cuda having to experience a “backs to the wall” game on the home ice of the top seed.
The sort of challenge I hope they’re ready for.
I do like that too, hope they thrive!