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Barons gain three points on week
despite goal drought
Young team involved in three
close games
11/28/04 - by Craig Haueter
If you like close games, the Cleveland Barons took all three games to
the wire this week, gaining a win Friday night over Cincinnati and salvaging a
point in a shootout loss to Houston Tuesday night. In a rematch with Cincinnati
Saturday night, the outcome was not decided until the Mighty Ducks managed a
pair of goals in the final four minutes of the third period. Despite a shot
advantage of 112-89 over their three opponents this week, the Barons could only
muster a total of seven goals in those three games, including just 1 power play
goal in 13 chances.
Tuesday night, with just seven minutes to play in
regulation, Tomas Plihal of the Barons muscled the puck through traffic in
front of the Houston goal to give the Barons a 2-1 lead. However, the lead did
last long. Houston's Matt Foy poked the puck past Dimitri Patzold to the tie
the game up at 15:06 of the third. Rookie forward Riley Armstrong scored his
second goal of the season for the Barons in the second period. After a
scoreless overtime period, Houston easily won the shootout 3-1, with only
Patrick Rissmiller able to convert a shot past Aeros goalie Mike Smith.
The save of the game belonged to Patzold as he stopped Christoph
Brandner from point-blank range off a loose puck in the second period.
Symbolizing the frustrations of struggling to score was Shane Joseph of the
Barons who chopped his stick over the crossbar after a fruitless flurry late in
the second period.
The first meeting of the season Friday night with
intra-state rival Cincinnati produced a tight-checking, low-scoring affair,
which the Barons won on home ice 3-2. The Mighty Ducks tallied the opening
score with Michael Holmqvist finishing off a three-on-one break for Cincinnati
with a wrist shot from 15 feet. Josh Prudden's second goal of the season would
tie the game at 1-1 nearly three minutes later on a great individual effort.
The second period saw both teams exchange goals as Tomas Plihal scored for the
Barons off a rebound of his own previous shot. A defensive breakdown by Matt
Carkner in his own end allowed Stanislav Chistov to navigate inside and feed a
pass back to Aaron Rome for the tally with just eight seconds remaining in the
period.
With under four minutes remaining in regulation, Shane Joseph
of the Barons wristed home his first game-winner and fourth goal overall for
the 3-2 win. Joseph skillfully settled a bouncing rebound off a shot from Grant
Stephenson to beat Frederic Cassivi from between the faceoff circles. The
Mighty Ducks made the Barons' faithful nervous in the final moments of the
contest with a Cincinnati shot that crossed the goal line was disallowed due to
a Mighty Duck dislodging the net off its moorings. The win snapped a 3-game
losing streak for Cleveland and reversed what happened the previous two home
dates--giving up late goals to lose. The two teams combined for a season-low 10
penalty minutes.
In the rematch Saturday night in Cincinnati, Joffrey
Lupul scored two goals and Mike Ayers made 29 saves in his AHL debut as the
Mighty Ducks defeated the Barons 4-2. For the tenth time this season, the
Barons jumped out to a 1-0 lead as Aaron Gill redirected a wrist shot from
defenseman Tim Conboy. Cincinnati countered with the tying goal at the midpoint
of the first period as Lupul beat Dimitri Patzold for his third goal of the
season.
Patrick Rissmiller re-established the Barons lead converting a
"spin-o-rama" past goalie Ayers. However, with 12 seconds remaining in the
period, Pierre Parenteau scored on a power play chance to tie the game up 2-2.
Cincinnati would wait until 3:31 to play in regulation to score the deciding
goal as Lupul registered his second goal of the night punching a rebound home.
Joel Perrault added an insurance tally a minute later. Ayers, recalled from
Dayton of ECHL earlier in the day, earned his first AHL victory.
Barons Notes
Despite the shootout loss to Houston Tuesday night,
the Barons are sad to see the season series end so soon. Prior to Tuesday's
game, Cleveland was a perfect 3-0-0-0 against the Aeros this season and had won
six of the last seven meetings.
The Cleveland Barons Player of the Week is right wing
Shane Joseph. Joseph had two assists the previous week in three games and an
even plus/minus. The Minnesota State-Mankato alum had his four-game point
streak snapped in Grand Rapids.
Houston goalie Mike Smith has to rank
as one of the top AHL goalies in physical size. Listed as 6'3", Smith made
openings hard to spot in the Houston net for Barons attackers. Beside stopping
40 Cleveland shots in the game, he also came up big in the shootout. Smith was
a 5th Round pick by Dallas in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.
Two reasons
contributing to the offensive struggles of the Barons recently might be
tendencies for the forwards to pass up close range shots on the power play,
dishing the puck back to defensemen at the blue line and shot generally taken
from poor angles along the side boards too deep toward the goal line. The
Barons are off until next Friday night at home which allows much-needed
practice ice team for the young squad.
Although rookie defenseman Josh
Gorges has yet to score an AHL point, he continues to do everything else it
takes to win. Notwithstanding a scoreless string of 19 games, Gorges has been
perhaps the Barons most valuable skater according to Barons' coaches. Gorges
played the previous four seasons with the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL and was
signed as a free agent by San Jose.
Interesting statistic of the day:
Dimitri Patzold and Nolan Schaefer have been excellent in the third period this
season. Combined, the duo has stopped 174 of a possible 187 shots against them.
That is good for a .930 save percentage.
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