Barons Fall To Grand Rapids, 9-2
February 16, 2006 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Cleveland Barons News Release
CLEVELAND OH -Tomas Kopecky scored three goals and Jiri Hudler recorded five assists to lead the Grand Rapids Griffins to a 9-2 win over the Barons on Thursday night. Josh Hennessy recorded a goal and an assist in the loss.
Grand Rapids took the lead just four minutes into the first period as the Barons gave up the opening goal of the game for the 15th time in their past 18 games. Nate DiCasmirro scored his 12th of the season on an assist by Griffins goaltender Jimmy Howard. Grand Rapids extended their lead to 2-0 when Doug MacLean earned his league-leading 37th goal of the year on a five-on-four power play.
Griffins center Tomas Kopecky notched a hat trick in the second period to bring the game to a score of 5-1 through forty minutes of play. He scored his first goal of the night and 17th of the season at the 7:56 mark of the second period off assists from Jiri Hudler and Kyle Quincey. Kopecky then took advantage of two separate Barons power plays to bring Grand Rapids to a 5-0 lead. The Barons responded when Ryane Clowe fired home his 11th of the year just 15-seconds later. Barons rookie forward Josh Hennessy extended his point streak to six games (1-9=10) with an assist on the Clowe goal.
The Griffins took over in the third period to bring the game to a final score of 9-2. MacLean scored his second goal of the night on a two man break in front of Barons netminder Nolan Schaefer to extend the Griffins lead to 6-1 at 3:47 of the third period. The Barons answered less than two minutes later when Josh Hennessy scored his 18th of the year at the 5:35 mark. Patrick Rissmiller assisted on the goal, extending his point streak (4-5-9) six games. That would be all the scoring the Barons would do as Grand Rapids scored three more goals to end the period. Clay Wilson scored his seventh goal of the year before Kent McDonnell and Nick Martens each scored power play goals. Jiri Hudler assisted on both of the Griffins final goals.
The Barons play their next five games on the road before returning to home ice for back to back games against the Hamilton Bulldogs on Friday, March 3rd and Saturday, March 4th. The first 3,000 fans on Saturday will receive a free Matt Carkner Bobblehead. Tickets for all regular season games are on sale now and group discounted tickets are available by calling the Barons at 216-420-0000. Schedule and promotional information is found online by Crashing the Net at www.clevelandbarons.net.
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