San Jose Barracuda Top Milwaukee Admirals 4-1 at Panther Arena

Quentin Musty scored twice and Oliver Wahlstrom added a delayed-penalty goal as the San Jose Barracuda rallied for a 4-1 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals at historic UW–Milwaukee Panther Arena. Musty’s strikes were his 11th and 12th of the season, and Wahlstrom’s marker was identified as his 21st.

Milwaukee opened the scoring when Shawn Element picked up his third of the season, a goal the Admirals described in their release this way: "The play started after Joey Willis intercepted a San Jose pass in the neutral zone and quickly passed to Element, who was hauled down to the ice but still managed to get a shot off that beat netminder Matt Davis." That shot came at the 8:42 mark of the first period and gave Milwaukee a 1-0 edge.

San Jose answered before the period ended when Quentin Musty tied the game. "They tied the score on Quentin Musty's 11th of the year with 5:46 left in the first," the Admirals release said. The Barracuda took the lead early in the second when Oliver Wahlstrom scored on a delayed penalty 2:24 into the period, and less than three minutes later Musty scored again to push the lead to 3-1, a sequence the Admirals’ recap summarized as "San Jose's Quentin Musty gave them a two-goal advantage less than three minutes later with his 12th of the season."

San Jose closed out the game late in the third with a final goal that appears in sources with two spellings: the Admirals release said it "sealed the game with a Luca Cagnon goal with 7:12 to go in the game," while an independent recap spelled the scorer "Luca Cagnoni" and listed the tally as his seventh of the season. The goal made the final 4-1 in front of the Panther Arena crowd.

Goaltending lines reported by team and independent accounts conflict. The Admirals’ release stated, "Matt Murray finished the night with 33 saves in net for the Admirals but suffered the loss." An independent recap listed San Jose goalie Matt Davis with 14 saves on 15 shots and Milwaukee’s Matthew Murray with 25 saves on 28 shots. Per-period shot counts in that account showed San Jose outshooting Milwaukee 10-8 in the first, 14-7 in the second and 13-10 in the third, and both teams went 0-for-3 on the power play.

Milwaukee’s team note also highlighted a roster and schedule wrinkle: this matchup marked the first time since November 22 that the Admirals played a team outside the Central Division, ending a 38-game streak of Central Division opponents. Barracuda materials list San Jose at 32-16-2-2 on the season and show Milwaukee at 22-23-4-3.

Schedule listings for the next meeting vary across sources: one recap said San Jose would be back in action "tomorrow" at 4 p.m., Barracuda schedule snippets list a March 7 start at 7:00 p.m., another Barracuda note referenced 5 p.m., and Admirals messaging promoted Friday night at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 6 p.m. Those conflicting start times remain unresolved in the available accounts.

Musty finished with two goals, Wahlstrom his 21st and the late Cagnon/Cagnoni tally sealed the win as San Jose left Milwaukee with a 4-1 road victory; official box-score confirmation is needed to reconcile the differing goaltender and shot totals in the accounts.