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Barons finding wins hard to come
by so far in 2005
Finish grueling
five-game-in-six-night stretch with only a win to show for it
1/10/05 - by Craig Haueter
In a week that saw the
Barons start in Winnipeg, Manitoba and end with a three-in-three weekend at
home in front of the top brass from San Jose, the common threads throughout the
week were lack of goals and lack of wins. Only an impressive 33-save shutout by
goalie Nolan Schaefer Saturday night over Grand Rapids saved Cleveland from
being swept. To compound matters, the Barons were outscored 14-5 by their
opponents in those five games. The downward spiral started Tuesday night in
Winnipeg when the Barons surrendered three goals in less than four minutes in
the third period to lose 3-2 to the Moose.
January 4 –
Cleveland 2 @ Manitoba 3
A late surge from the Manitoba Moose led
to the Barons third consecutive defeat on their road trip through Western
Canada. Nolan Schaefer was exceptional for the Barons with 28 saves in the
losing effort. Jim Fahey and Christian Ehrhoff scored for Cleveland while Ryan
Kesler and Josh Green scored for the Moose. Kesler scored a pair of goals in
the contest. Moose goaltender Alex Auld won in net after returning from
Switzerland where he represented his country at the Spengler Cup.
January 5 – Cleveland 0 @ Manitoba 3
Jason King and Ryan
Kesler led the Moose to victory Wednesday night. Kesler continued his torrent
scoring against the Barons with a goal and an assist. Kesler now has five goals
and five assists versus Cleveland this season. King added three assists to aid
the cause for Manitoba. Dimitri Patzold took the loss in net for the
Barons.
January 7 – Rochester 4 @ Cleveland 1
Having concluded a fruitless four-game road trip through Edmonton and Manitoba,
the AHL schedule makers did the Barons no favor in bringing the
division-leading Rochester to town to welcome them home. Rookie winger Daniel
Paille notched a hat trick, including a shorthanded penalty shot in the second
period. The Barons lost despite holding a 37-25 advantage in shots. Tim Conboy
tallied the lone Cleveland goal.
January 8 – Grand Rapids 0 @
Cleveland 2
Patrick Rissmiller scored a pair of goals and Nolan
Schaefer posted his fifth career shutout to lead the Barons to victory. With
the shutout, Schaefer broke the tie he had with Vesa Toskala for the Barons
franchise record. The win snapped a five-game Barons’ losing streak.
Rissmiller earned his second two-goal game of the season.
January 9
– Grand Rapids 4 @ Cleveland 0
Grand Rapids jumped out to a
3-0 in the first period and never looked back on Sunday evening. The win broke
a nine-game winless streak for the Griffins. Matt Ellis scored a pair of goals
for Grand Rapids and Darryl Bootland and Ryan Barnes added the other two
tallies. Drew MacIntyre shutout the Barons while facing 26 shots and drew
revenge on Barons’ goalie Nolan Schaefer after Schaefer shutout the
Griffins and MacIntyre the night before. Barons notes
The Barons have competed in several
5-games-in-7-nights stretches over the years, but the five games played in a
six-day stretch represents a new franchise record.
Cleveland and
Syracuse have yet to play this season. They will quickly take care of that
problem this week facing each other in three consecutive games starting
Wednesday night at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. They will then move to
Syracuse for games Friday and Saturday night. The Barons will not return home
for a game until January 25th. Wednesday night’s game in Columbus versus
the Crunch will represent the first Barons game televised locally.
The
Cleveland Barons Hockey Insider Show will make its debut Monday night (January
10th) from 5-6 PM Pacific Coast Time. The weekly show will be hosted by The
Voice of the Barons Jamie Smock and can be heard via the internet on
http://www.sportstalkcleveland.com/.
The
Cleveland Barons Player of the Week is left winger Ryane Clowe. Last week,
Clowe totaled 2 goals and 4 assists in four games. On the week, Clowe figured
in 60% of the Barons goals (6/10).
Onlookers at Gund Arena Friday night
witnessed a strange sequence midway through the first period. With play set to
resume by a faceoff, Amerks winger Sean McMorrow and Barons winger Mike Hoffman
dropped the gloves. Referee Terry Koharski skated in between, spoke to the
players and stopped the fight before it began, much to the confusion of all
observers. Seconds later after the puck was dropped, McMorrow and Hoffman went
at it and earned roughing penalties.
As it turns out, Koharski did each
a favor. Because the puck had not dropped, McMorrow and Hoffman would have been
subject to a league suspension. Once the roughing penalties expired, McMorrow
jumped Hoffman and pinned him against the boards. For his efforts during the
second go-around, McMorrow earned a fighting major and instigator penalty,
which carries a 10-minute misconduct. He finished with 21 penalty minutes on
the night and now has 104 in 18 games.
Barons fans were surprised to
see Garrett Stafford playing right wing over the weekend at home with Patrick
Rissmiller and Ryane Clowe as line mates.
One of life’s
embarrassing moments struck goalie Dimitri Patzold Friday night in the second
period. Patzold was in the process of retrieving a puck out in front of the
goal during a Barons power play and had it stolen by Daniel Paille. To save
Paille from scoring, Patzold tossed his stick at the puck that earned a penalty
shot for Rochester. Paille consequently converted the penalty shot.
Rochester defenseman Brandon Smith was checked hard into the boards behind the
Amerks net Friday night in the third period and left with assistance to the
locker room. Smith did not return to the game.
Something certainly had
to give Saturday night when Grand Rapids came to town. The Griffins were
winless in their last eight games (0-7-0-1) and the Barons were winless in
their last five games (0-5-0-0) and 0-4 to start the 2005 portion of the
schedule. With Cleveland leading 2-0 after two period, the Barons had to feel
pretty good about ending that losing streak. The Barons are now 10-1-1-0 when
leading after two periods.
Gund Arena staff were busy Saturday
afternoon. The Cavaliers of the NBA played the New York Knicks in a
nationally-televised game in the afternoon and quickly converted the arena to
hockey in time for the game Saturday night. Game time was 8 PM, an hour later
than usual.
Hockey fans at Gund Arena got a chance to watch a couple of
grizzled veterans this weekend in Chris Taylor of Rochester and Travis Richards
of Grand Rapids. Taylor, 32, was originally drafted by the New York Islanders
back in 1990 and has spent parts of six seasons in Rochester. Richards, soon to
be 35 in March, was drafted back in 1988 by the Minnesota North Stars. This is
his 9th season in Grand Rapids.
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