Barons Weekly Release

Published on April 5, 2004 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Cleveland Barons News Release


Playoff Bound... The Barons clinched a spot in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time in franchise history on Friday night. Currently, the Barons can finish in third, fourth, or fifth place in the North Division. The Barons are tied with Rochester in third place as they share 84 points.

What A Turnaround... The Barons have clinched their first winning record in the three-year history of the franchise. Bettering their overall point total by 30 points from last season, the Barons are the AHL's most-improved team.

Flashback... The Barons began a stretch of four games in five nights on Wednesday against Syracuse. The Barons scored the game's first goal with a Nick Bootland tally. Shane Joseph and Grant Stevenson assisted on the goal. The Crunch would then rattle off three goals. Parma native Dan Fritsche, playing in his first career AHL game, netted the Crunch's second goal. The Barons would edge back into the game. Nick Bootland scored his second goal of the game and Shane Joseph and Grant Stevenson again assisted. The Barons could not net the tying goal and fell 3-2... The Barons traveled to Toronto to battle the Roadrunners. At the time, Toronto was just one point behind the Barons in the North Division standings. Cleveland jumped out to a 1-0 lead via a Patrick Rissmiller goal. Rissmiller kept the pressure up and then assisted on an Aaron Gill goal just one minute later. The 2-0 lead would stand until Matt Carkner scored his first goal of the season on an empty net. Toronto then scored with just 29 seconds to break up Nolan Schaefer's shutout hopes. Schaefer saved 23 shots on the night... The Barons then traveled to Hamilton to battle the North Division leaders. Hamilton owns the league's fourth best offense scoring 2.90 goals per game. Nolan Schaefer was again up to the task. The rookie netminder would stand tall for the full 60 minutes in gaining his first professional shutout victory. The only goal of the game was scored on a wrap-around by Marcel Goc... The Barons hosted the Syracuse Crunch on Sunday evening. Getting off on the right foot, Marcel Goc scored the game's first goal. Jon DiSalvatore and Frank Littlejohn assisted on the goal. After Syracuse tied the game at one, Doug Murray rifled a shot through three Crunch defenders to give the Barons the lead. Syracuse would then score the game's final three goals to turn back the Barons.

Coming Up... The Barons will continue the Labatt Blue Cup series with Cincinnati on Wednesday night at Gund Arena. The Barons currently lead the series with a record of 3-2-1-0. With a victory, the Barons would clinch the Labatt Blue Cup. On home ice against West Division opponents, the Barons are 9-3-0-1, including a 2-1-0-0 mark against the Mighty Ducks. In two games against Cincinnati this season, goaltender Nolan Schaefer is 1-0 with a 1.20 goals against average and a .941 save percentage. The Mighty Ducks are currently clinging to the final playoff spot in the West Division... The Barons will host the Utah Grizzlies for the regular season home finale on Friday night. The Barons are 2-1-0-0 against Utah this season. Tavis Hansen owns 2 goals and 1 assist against the Grizzlies this season. One of his goals was a game-winning short-handed tally. The Barons have had to do most of their scoring at even strength. They have only managed 9 power plays in the three games against Utah. Although they did score on two of the opportunities... The Barons will then travel to Cincinnati on Saturday night for the regular season finale against the Mighty Ducks. The Barons are 1-1-1-0 against Cincinnati on the road this season.

Barons Player of the Week... The Cleveland Barons Player of the Week is goaltender Nolan Schaefer. The rookie netminder posted a 2-1-0 record on the week with a .951 save percentage and a 1.34 goals against average. With the win on Friday against Toronto, the Barons clinched their first AHL Calder Cup Playoff berth in franchise history. The only goal Schaefer allowed in the game came with 29 seconds left in the game after the Barons were ahead 3-0. Schaefer then posted his first career shutout victory on Saturday against Hamilton. Hamilton currently has the fourth best offense in the league averaging 2.90 goals per game.

Cleveland Barons Hockey Show... The "Cleveland Barons Hockey Show", a weekly one-hour radio talk format show, will not be heard this Monday due to the NCAA National Championship Game. The show will resume on WKNR 850-am next Monday as the show will be heard from 8pm-9pm. The Voice of the Cleveland Barons, Jamie Smock, will co-host the show with Jason Gibbs, Promotions Director for WKNR. Smock has been the Barons radio voice since the 2001-02 inaugural season.

21 And Counting... Jon DiSalvatore pushed his goal total for the season to 21 with his first career hat trick on Wednesday against Chicago. DiSalvatore became the second Cleveland Barons rookie to eclipse the 20-goal plateau. Chad Wiseman scored 21 goals in his 2001-02 rookie campaign. (note: Brad Boyes was a 30-goal scorer last season, but only scored 7 goals with the Barons). With one more goal, DiSalvatore will become the Barons all-time rookie goal-scoring leader.

Relying On Rookies... The Barons currently have 11 rookies (10 skaters, 1 goaltender) on the roster. Garrett Stafford, Jon DiSalvatore, Ryane Clowe, and Grant Stevenson all fall in the top-20 of the league's rookie scorers. The Barons are the only team in the league with more than two skaters in the top-20 of rookie scoring.

Top Barons... Miroslav Zalesak has many is looking in his rearview mirror at most AHL players in several categories. Currently, his 72 points are fourth in the AHL, his 33 goals are tied for third, his 39 assists are tied for tenth, and his 13 power play goals are fourth. Zalesak has recorded a point in 69.6% of the games he has appeared in (48/69)... Garrett Stafford has had a huge week, raking in two AHL honors. Stafford was selected to the AHL All-Rookie Team and the AHL Second All-Star Team. The University of New Hampshire product leads all rookie defensemen in points, goals, and assists. Among all rookies, the blueliner is tied for sixth in points, tied for first in assists, tied for second in power play points, and tied for third in power play assists. Among all defensemen, Stafford is tied for third in points, tied for third in assists, and sixth in goals... Jon DiSalvatore set the Barons franchise record for shots in a game by managing 10 on 3/2/04. He is 8th in rookie scoring with 44 points. Among all rookies, he is tied for 5th in goals (21), tied for 16th in assists (23), and second in shots (195). He has recorded at least one point in the 15 out of the last 23 games with 10 goals and 9 assists. He also has recorded at least one point in 19 out of the last 29 games. During that time, he has recorded 11 goals and 13 assists... Matt Carkner has a career high 12 points this season. He scored his first goal of the season on Friday night against Toronto. Carkner owns a team-best and career-high +16 plus/minus rating... Nolan Schaefer has been stellar since his return from San Jose. In his five starts, Schaefer is 3-2-0 with a 2.00 goals against average (10 GA/299:40) and a .933 save percentage (140-150). He has been great on home ice this season. The rookie netminder is 8-4-0 with a 2.05 goals against average and a .935 save percentage in Gund Arena. Overall, the Barons have gained at least one point in 17 out of his 24 starts. The Barons have a winning percentage of .625 (30/48) in his 21 starts... Shane Joseph, signed to an ATO on 3/17/04, has bolstered the Barons attack. Since his addition, the Barons have gone 6-4-1-0. In the nine games he has appeared in, the Barons are 5-3-1-0. Joseph has recorded 7 points during that span, on 3 goals and 4 assists... Marcel Goc tallied the game-winning goal in Saturday's 1-0 victory. With the goal, Goc is now tied for the team lead with 5 game-winning goals this season. That makes 33.3% of Goc's 15 goals of the game-winning variety. He is fifth on the team with those 15 goals. The goal against Hamilton was only his second road goal of the season. Goc has been great on home ice this season. He has recorded 75% of his points on home ice this season.

Monday Madness At Buffalo Wild Wings... Ryane Clowe, Jon DiSalvatore, Craig Valette, and Doug Murray will be at Buffalo Wild Wings in Medina on Monday, April 5th from 7-9pm. The players will meet and mingle with restaurant goers as the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game will be played. A Labatt Blue Slapshot Zone will be set up for fans to shoot on. Buffalo Wild Wings – Medina is located on Rte. 18 just west of I-71 in Medina.

Fan Appreciation Night... Friday, April 9th is Fan Appreciation Night at Gund Arena. Fans that bring any losing Ohio Lottery tickets to the Box Office on Friday can purchase $16 tickets for $8. Friday night will feature the Harpo's Chicken Wing Shootout. One lucky fan will have the chance to win the entire crowd a order of a dozen free chicken wings at either Harpo's Sports Cafe location. Harpo's Sports Cafe is located on 5777 Smith Road in Brook Park and 19654 W. 130th St. in Strongsville. Throughout the game, several great prizes will be raffled off to the crowd.

Up and West... The National Hockey League announced today that the San Jose Sharks first-round playoff series against the St. Louis Blues will begin on Thursday, April 8 at 7:00 p.m.(PST). The series will feature games one and two in San Jose and games three and four in St. Louis. If necessary, games five and seven would be played in San Jose while game six would be in St. Louis... The Sharks distributed the following awards yesterday. Patrick Marleau has been selected as the Seagate Technology "Sharks Player of the Year" in a vote by the Bay Area Media. Tom Preissing was selected as this year's PlayStation "Sharks Rookie of the Year" in voting among a panel of Bay Area media. Patrick Marleau is the winner of the 2003-04 inaugural PlayStation Three Stars of the Game award, presented by 989 Sports.

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American Hockey League Stories from April 5, 2004


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