Southern California native Jake McGrew scored with 10:42 left in the third period, breaking a tie and sending the San Jose Barracuda to a 2-1 win over the Tucson Roadrunners in their Pacific Division play-in game in Irvine, Calif., on Tuesday afternoon.
The Barracuda, who finished fourth in the Pacific during the regular season, will face either Colorado or Ontario in Wednesday’s play-in final.
McGrew, a 22-year-old rookie who played for the Los Angeles Jr. Kings program while growing up in Orange, Calif., took a feed from Jayden Halbgewachs behind the net and beat Ivan Prosvetov for the deciding tally. McGrew had scored four goals in 27 games during the 2020-21 regular season.
Evan Weinger also scored for San Jose, which got 19 saves from Josef Korenar.
Jan Jenik, who scored two goals in two games with the parent Arizona Coyotes earlier this month, netted the only goal for Tucson.
Pacific Division Play-In Round
Game 1 – Tue., May 18 – (4) San Jose Barracuda 2, (7) Tucson Roadrunners 1
Game 2 – Tue., May 18 – (6) Ontario Reign vs. (5) Colorado Eagles, 7:30 PDT
Game 3 – Wed., May 19 – (4) San Jose vs. Game 2 winner, 7:00 PDT
— All games at Irvine, CA
Pacific Division Semifinals (best-of-3)
(1) Henderson Silver Knights vs. Play-In Winner
Game 1 – Fri., May 21 – Play-In Winner vs. Henderson, 7:00 PDT
Game 2 – Sun., May 23 – Henderson vs. Play-In Winner, 1:00 PDT
Game 3 – Mon., May 24 – Play-In Winner vs. Henderson, 1:00 PDT (if necessary)
— All games at Las Vegas, NV
Pacific Division Semifinals (best-of-3)
(2) Bakersfield Condors vs. (3) San Diego Gulls
Game 1 – Fri., May 21 – San Diego vs. Bakersfield, 6:00 PDT
Game 2 – Sun., May 23 – Bakersfield vs. San Diego, 5:00 PDT
Game 3 – Mon., May 24 – San Diego vs. Bakersfield, 6:00 PDT (if necessary)
— All games at Bakersfield, CA
Pacific Division Finals (best-of-3; to conclude by May 29)
Semifinal #1 winner vs. Semifinal #2 winner
Game 1 – TBD
Game 2 – TBD
Game 3 – TBD (if necessary)
— All games at home of higher seed
